Dancing

I moved to California, and danced.

In my NE Kansas City Hippie/Hoodlum culture, people didn’t dance. There was a stigma about it �" no clue why. When the disco era arrived, wadn’t no way on God’s green earth we were gonna take part in that sell-out s**t. I never went to bars here with live music. I was underage for the most part.

My first experience with dancing happened in California. People did far more than dance as couples. People got up as individuals, as groups, and filled those dance floors. At outdoor concerts, women did their Stevie Nicks twirling and swirling. People jumped up and down and sometimes slammed into each other. Every Armenian party, every Hispanic party all featured dancing. I recall an 80-something Armenian man dance down across the floor, pick up a shot of vodka with his teeth, throw it back and keep on dancing. The South Americans �" they did the tango, and just danced as part of life.

I came back to the Midwest and discovered that freestyle, no-partner twirling and swirling would get you labeled as a crazy person real quick. Bands would be jammin and the audience looked like they were bored to tears. Probably not bored, though. Just upholding their civilized manner that didn’t include dancing. Partners dancing was OK, at least.

I’m in a different country here. I can’t say that I recommend it.