[Closed] Why do we Dance?

Started by religious nutters in prehistory. Religion promoted group identity. Bigger groups killed smaller groups so dancers had better survival rate.

You can’t hear Jimmy?

Or maybe we’ve always done it to attract a mate

get thi coyt love, tha’s pulled

Hmmm, not convinced mate.  Hitting a big log with a small stick while waiting for the kill to be butchered prolly started before any sort of big fairy in the sky mumbo jumbo - but I could be completely wrong though...

Dancing stimulates our very existence of being, Dopamine, endorphins, reduced cortisol whilst throwing yourself about like a loon, what’s not to like?.

I dont trust anyone who says they don’t dance, especially if they are of a certain age and have taken mdma .

why dancing feels good from the telegraph  of all places, it wasn’t that long ago that this paper was running derogatory stories about club culture

We dance because we can move.

The whole of life is a dance.

Depends on what you mean by dance though... Is riding your bike a dance?

Somafunk, does "suck it" and "swell" mean anything to you?  Please don't take offence if they don't. But from some of your previous posts (and your username) I think we may have moved in similar circles about 20 yes ago...

I believe it all started when early humans needed to stack boxes of varying sizes.

Did those boxes by any chance have big or little fish in them and were made of cardboard..?

Tequila.

I always thought perhaps it has something to do with the beating of our heart. Music beat, heart beat, feet beat.

Definitely heart beat related I reckon.

Once there is a rhythm that mimics it something deep inside your soul taps out a brain pulse and synced to that your feet start and your bottom wiggles.. all in a nano second.

Awesome feeling.

However I do have another theory, more a basic fight/flight reaction.

Cast your mind back to when dinosaurs and large four legged mammals ruled, humans were in the infancy..

That beat of hooves and galloping resonated in the chests of humans and was a warning that incoming danger was imminent, so a fight/flight reaction based on beat was the warning signal..

Then humans started cutting trees down for firewood and shelter, and rhythms could be tapped out on logs and replicated..

And then someone found a Panasonic Beatbox under a bush, and pressed PLAY and lo-and-behold House Music blared our and humans forgot about starving and being eaten for a few mins...

I believe it all started when early humans needed to stack boxes of varying sizes.

😆

There are a few theories that I've read, probably all feed into it somehow:

One of the earliest parts of the brain to evolve was the bit that regulates movement, and it responds very strongly to rhythm - we need rhythm just for walking along, so we're all tuned to acknowledge it from the very beginning.

Big long tribal dances started very early, and some suggest that demonstrating stamina and physical prowess in these would suggest that someone is a good hunter/stalker, and potential mate

Endorphins and so on just feel good.

This is a great book for anyone who wants to read more:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Your-Brain-Music-Understanding/dp/1843547163

ooh that's new. Is that an affiliate link?

Dancing evolved I imagine to help solidify groups to strengthen bonds between dancers....same as ducks really

Animal?

it maybe a bit of an animal thing. And its possibly a link to language - in that some speculate that our capacity for language came from a capacity for mimicry and that other species that employ mimicry also respond to rhythm

I came across an interesting notion recently - that we have almost no historical record of dance - we can feel pretty certain that dance must have been part of pretty much all human life but our historical record of dance is only as old as moving pictures

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H3Gqh2AC4E

That last clip was filmed on Mer (Murray Island) in the Torres Straits. Great people. The film doesn't do justice to that dance. When enough men are doing it the ground shakes. And when the women do their dances, men go weak at the knees.

I knew some of the family of those dancers in the 1970s. The island's memory of that expedition was passed down in oral history. They were still wondering when they were going to get their stuff back - various cultural artifacts taken away by the expedition.

Because our OH forces us to at weddings

what is it about music and dance that makes all of us do it?

All? I don’t. Well, I might bob around a bit, but I’m more interested in listening and watching. No real sense of rhythm, me.

No real sense of rhythm, me.

Me neither. For quite a long time I had an irregular heart beat - I wonder if thats why.

"Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire"
George Bernard Shaw (allegedly)

I don't know why we dance but this sort of thing makes me glad we do.

It’s fun

Probably a socialisation thing, group bonding. Helped fight off non-dancing sabre-tooths. Any 4 legged carnivores would think twice when confronted with 30 hairy people dancing to slap my bitch.

When you feel the music, you just gotta move 😀

There is obviously a great sociological view on this, but ultimately I think it comes down to euphoria.  When you truly let yourself relax into dancing it is fantastic.  I speak as a bad and completely amateur proponent.  I have spent some wonderful time dancing to music I love.  I met my wife whilst I was dancing...

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Started by religious nutters in prehistory. Religion promoted group identity. Bigger groups killed smaller groups so dancers had better survival rate.

WTF are you talking about?

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My dancing shows others I am a dad.

To attract a mate.

I used to love a dance.... now I restrict myself to mini raves with little J. I’ve taught him to breakdance and he has taught me that bloody swishy floss thing they all do!

No one wants to see a 40 something dad wiggling and wobbling in public. 🙂

That's bollocks ...don't be so self conscious ..dance if you wanna dance 😁

I was at a Ceilidh over the weekend and I reckon I can give you the definitive answer.

Some dance because they like it, some dance because they are pissed.

There's still a lot of stuff about the human brain that science can't explain and the response to music, dancing or any other reaction, still can't be explained. And that is good.

Vertical expression of horizontal desire.

I hate dancing, absolutely hate that I cant dance either. Its about the only thing I really feel self concious about.

.

I don't really dance per se, rather I bounce about like an eedjit, tis great fun all the same! 😆