Funky

Another posting that would have been more appropriate last month, but hey, better late than never...

I am not bragging when I say: I am a reasonably good dancer. I am not great, and when it comes to formal (non-freestyle) dances I really can only pull off basic swing moves, but I have a decent grasp of rhythm, a good ear for the beat and bassline, and I am not embarrassed by anything I do on the dance floor. (The last one is the key.)

I admit I am "good" by having a sense of rhythm, yes, but also because many people are not "good" when it comes to dancing. That is almost entirely due to their inhibitions that prevent them from being comfortable, and therefore prevent them from having the necessary spirit to be considered "good" by others.

So, basically, because I am not hideous, and because I am willing to do what others are not, I get to be "good" by those standards. Which is how it should be.

I have danced at all the office holiday parties I've attended (which would now be seven). Anyone from the office who has been to one and looked at the dance floor has almost certainly seen me. And those people talk about me in terms of me being good (in a non-ironic way) to people who have not seen me.

This causes these uninitiated people who attend a party where I am and who are inclined to dance to want me to dance, too. Which I do, and which I do well enough to more than fulfill the expectations created by the aforementioned talk by the people who've seen me before.

Again, I'm not reinventing dance or anything. I'm just able to do it without shame.

Nonetheless, almost without fail, each year on the Monday after the party it proves to be the case that the people who prior to the party had beseeched me to dance then feel compelled to join in about touting my dancing prowess to people who weren't at the party.

This is flattering, certainly, but it always begs a question in the back of my mind, which I never ask.

Why wouldn't I be a good dancer? I mean, why is the default position that I would be not good?

They speak in such flowing terms to be complimentary, I know. I appreciate that. However, the tone suggests that they are actively surprised to discover I am as good as I am. Why should it be surprising? Because I am a heterosexual, Caucasian male? I concede that demographic does not have the best reputation when it comes to strutting stuff on the floor, but is it that not in a way just as insulting as (for example) thinking that all black people like fried chicken, and being surprised by discovering one who doesn't?

Why can they not simply speak of it in terms of it being something I, as an individual, can do? Why must it be this seemingly amazing defiance of stereotype?

That's not how they're thinking, I know. But the thing is: I don't get the impression they're thinking about what they're thinking.

I merely hope that when they make the movie about this that Woody Harrelson doesn't play me. That's what I'm getting at.

I think.

~

And now, here's a photo to completely undermine everything I stated above:

Have a field day in the comments, folks.