Time to Belt a Tune and Bust a Move
“You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching … Sing like there’s nobody listening … “ William Purkey, Ed.D, Author and Educator
Think about the last time you danced – really danced, as in letting your body just move to the music with unself-conscious abandon. What about the last time you sang – really sang, as in loud and from the heart and not really caring how you sounded. I suspect you can recall such times, but perhaps they were quite long ago, and you may be tempted to add an immediate and self-conscious caveat that at that time you weren’t totally of “right mind.”
What you may also recall is how doing so was great fun and made you feel energized. That’s certainly the case for me. I absolutely love to dance and sing, particularly with others, but it’s been a long time since I “really danced” and “really sang,” and doing both of them more regularly would have health benefits for my body and soul. Yet I don’t. When our children were younger we danced and sang together all the time, but somewhere along the line, that was lost. So this past weekend, as I included a bit of singing and dancing in my birthday festivities (without perhaps the “really”) and felt that familiar sense of elation that doing so brings, I found myself wondering why I don’t do this more often.
It is speculated by anthropologists that some manner of song and dance are coded into our DNA. The ability to produce musical tones appears to predate spoken language, while movement to rhythm is a natural impulse that likely accompanied our evolution to our present human form. Indeed, the incorporation of music and dance into rituals and ceremonies is both universal and ancient across all cultures and recorded times, and archeological records indicate the existence of dance before the birth of the earliest human civilizations. We can readily conclude that song and dance have been part of what connects and bonds us as humans since we became … human.
If that is the case, then why would such natural tendencies which function as an important form of connection and community and can provide both joy and solace be something that has become marginalized from the daily life of so many, including myself – or relegated to something that is primarily watched as a form of entertainment rather than participated in (guilty again)? And why would so many of us find ourselves insisting we “can’t” do either one, even though it is part of our human coding?
While there are many explanations, here’s what I know. I greatly miss doing both more often than I do, and have made it an intention to change that, starting with car singing (caution, car-dancing can be hazardous) and a one-song daily dance time with some singing thrown in for good measure. Perhaps you’ll consider joining me? While doing so won’t immediately connect us with others (until you invite them to join in), it will connect you with your soul and lift your spirits. And we could all use more of that right now … and then pass it on.