How to Dance in 3 Simple Steps--Part I

So, once upon a time when I was a small thing I lived in a little room with a little roommate who made an observation about Western dancing. She was saying that there just doesn't seem to be the same sense of fluidity, of comfort, of looseness when Westerners dance. In short there is no "there," there. I have always contested this, for the sake of myself mostly; as a Western dancer I would like to think that I do not come off as stiff and stodgy. But the more I have considered this, the more I fear that she was right, especially as I have seen dancing in other cultures and realized what it could be. So, in order to explain this, I have developed a hypothesis. I think that the root of this problem is found in Platonic dualism, which separates a persons body and soul into two different categories and exalts the latter over the former. I think this philosophy is at the root of many Westerners distate for the human body. It is so often seen as a base, degraded thing, the part of us that is the most animal. The problem is, the people who hate their own bodies will never be able to dance successfully. The best dancing is done by people who love their bodies and want to use them well. For example, when you dance, you can feel each movement of each muscle, the stretch and the twist involved in each maneuver. The curve of your foot's arch when you kick or point your toe. Dancing is what makes you most aware of your body, because you use every inch. And I think that one of the reason that Westerners have a hard time dancing is that they shy away from that face to face encounter with their own physicality. I think the other thing that comes into play in producing bad dancing is a general self-conciousness that inhibits people's willingness to experiment. I have found that the best cure to this (and don't scoff, Will) is actually dancing to rap music. It is so unpredictable and unorthodox and devoid of melody that you can't do the same old stuff, you have to get weird. Anyway, these are my brief and random observations for the night.