In high school, I went to dances as much as possible. I didn’t go because I liked to dance. Nor did I go because I was good at dancing. I went for one reason – to try to meet chicks.
We went to “under 21 dances” held once-a-week where teenagers would flock to dance under strobe lights to bad 80s pop hits. These were usually held on Sunday nights in nightclubs that usually served alcohol. I suspect Sunday night was a dead night for them so they would instead pack in hundreds of teens at $5-$10/head. There were usually long lines out the door with wait times of up to an hour just to get in.
We had CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) dances regularly too. In my neighborhood, there were 3 churches that held these. Admission was nominal – like $1. They were staffed by church volunteers and held in church basements or rec rooms. We had a blast going to them. All of the kids from my neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods would show up because we had nothing better to do. Sometimes there were fistfights and sometimes a kid would show drunk, but mostly these were harmless, PG rated events for us kids.
And finally, I went to every prom, junior prom and school dance I could. I attended my own and any I could when dating girls who attended different schools.
I am a horrible dancer. I have no natural rhythm. I was never taught to dance. I am clunky, self conscious and definitely not graceful.
Nonetheless, I danced at every dance for one reason – all the girls were on the floor dancing. 95% of the guys were too embarrassed (or cool) to dance. I figured, if I was one of the few guys on the dance floor, it increased my odds of meeting chicks.
My close friends felt the same way. We were all goofy, stiff klutzes on the dance floor (except for one standout – Koz, who practiced at home in front of the mirror while watching American Bandstand).
And it worked.
We met a lot of girls. We danced with a lot of them and when the slow songs came on, we were able to ask the girl we liked the most to dance with us before the rest of the guys who were lurking in the corners had a chance.
I’ve spent the last 10 years trying to develop some grace and flow through a rigorous fitness program geared around movement plus doing yoga. It has worked.(See gmb.io if you are interested).
Someday, I would like to learn to Pasa Doble and Tango. I’d also like to learn to do Ticking. If my knee and foot ever heal 100% I might even actually take some dance classes. I have zero interest in meeting chicks. But I think it could be fun to actually learn how to dance.