The language of dance

Okay, so I need some language lessons, stat! To me the language of dance is just as mystifying as a foreign language – perhaps even more so, because I’ve taken linguistics courses and understand the basic structure of spoken and written language in general.

First of all, there’s the basic moves. I love choreographed dances where there’s a routine for me to follow. But free-style...??? Other than a basic shuffle left and right, I don’t seem to even have a vocabulary to build from. And the words I do know – grapevine, rock, hitch, etc. – don’t seem to be used on this kind of dancefloor. The repetitive rhythm of the music that is typically played ends up feeling like the same word or phrase being repeated over and over again, and yet people seem to be able to translate it into a variety of movements.

But more than that, the language of the interaction between people baffles me. Sometimes they are communicating fun, sometimes friendship, sometimes drunkenness, sometimes attraction, and sometimes blatant sexuality. Not knowing what moves communicate what, I feel like I’m in a foreign country, afraid to try any words in that land’s language for fear that I’ll string them together wrong and say something stupid or offensive.

When learning a language, one generally looks for patterns, for the same groupings of sounds to repeated in some circumstances but not others. But on the dance floor, it all seems to get mixed up. Sometimes couples dance sexy together, but sometimes friends do to. Or sometimes, partners will dance sexy with people other than the person they are with. So when does sexy mean ‘not really sexy’ and when does it mean ‘sexy’. The last thing I want to do is have someone think I’m trying to come on to their girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever.

And of course, that’s on top of the nagging feeling from my past that dancing so provocatively is wrong in the first place. I was able to cross that line a little bit with my girlfriend because I knew it was welcome – I knew how the words would be translated. But when I’m out on the dance floor with others, I’m paralyzed into inaction by my lack of language proficiency. Sigh. Anybody got one of those ‘learn ___ in 30 days’ books for this situation?