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Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather wanna dance with somebody. They wanna feel the heat with somebody. Yeah, they wanna dance with somebody. With somebody who loves them.
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There’s a really interesting point early on, that “dancing” isn’t really an activity. I’m sure there are exceptions, but dancing tends to either be an adjunct to music or basically pretext for some other activity. Like, the guy Twisting again (perhaps like he did last summer) down the sidewalk with no music playing is…probably not well. But the guy playing the Hank Ballard song over his earbuds loud enough for everybody to hear, he’s enjoying entertainment. The couple (or more than two people; I’m not gonna judge…) that dispensed with dancing entirely, so they can go be intimate, they’re romantic. It’s just the dancer who’s a weirdo, which seems uniquely singled out.
I don’t dance, myself (I don’t sport…), but I do enjoy watching professional dancing. I definitely back the White Nights recommendation, and if anybody wants “dancing that feels like a comic book,” I’d highly recommend hunting down episodes of the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers. It was one of those shows where I was never sure if it was supposed to be campy or dead serious, but knew that I was entertained. And the dancing across many styles is excellent, with a judicious use of special effects that comic book movies should have learned from.
I miss dancing in that little square of space you have at a crowded concert. For now, I just shimmy a bit while listening to music and doing the dishes. Choreographed or unchoreographed, dancing has never been something I enjoy “performing.” I like moving around but not being the center of attention or even really being watched.