Clem is one of the most avid dance-lovers I know. He dances Salsa several times a week, attends dance events around the globe and spreads the spirit of dance wherever he goes! This is his article:

1) Together is better
The principle aim of all basic step patterns, and all figures, is to allow two people to coordinate their movements to music without any other communication. So long as the people are moving in sympathy with each other, it doesn’t matter on what beat they are dancing, whether the figures are executed according to rigorous parameters, or anything else. Grace and connectivity are what dancing is about, not the rigid formalization of these characteristics.

2) Know your role
The aim of the lead in a partnership is to create a frame of movement in which the follow displays their appreciation of the music. It is not for leads to detract from the follows’ efforts by grandstanding or showing off, leaving their partners doing nothing. In the case of less experienced follows, the lead facilitates the movements of the follow by extending their range of movement, teaching the follow to realize their capabilities. When the follower is more experienced, they can take more initiative – as distinct from back-leading – and provide the leader with more options into which the couple can move.

3) Less is more
Unless performing, use styling only to accentuate points in the music, not points in a figure. When best executed, these will coincide, but frequently, parts of figures suited for accent do not match the music, so leave that head-flick out or outstretched arm in, until the music and the movement are right for it.

4) Be Happy
No matter what their level of skill, happy, joyful people are much more fun to dance with than over-focused, unhappy or attitude-ridden people. You will have more fun, and so will you partner, if you relax and enjoy the experience, than try to force it to conform to your expectations of what it, or you, ‘should’ be.

5) Minimize thought
Dancing is more about feeling – intuitive, spontaneous response to music – than about thought. While learning a figure or working on something in a class, thinking is all to the better – understand what you have to do, so you can remember it to practice later – but once the foundation is laid, you will enjoy it more if you let it flow than spend all your time trying to remember while dancing (as opposed to practicing dancing). If you think too much, you will forget to breathe, and to enjoy yourself!

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After my disappointment with my last two attempts to get down and dirty with some serious dancing to some funky beats this weekend, I was afraid I lost the music within me. I began mourning my clubbing years – what was. When I look back and think about it now, it has been 11 years since my first nightclubbing experience. Does that make me old? I don’t think so. I started clubbing from the age of 15. Surely there’s an expiry date? That’s what I kept telling myself because there had to be a reason for me not feeling it this weekend…and it is what allowed me to begin slipping into my all consuming mourning.

Then there are the untimely and random incidents where I break into dance, grooving in my seat or strutting down the street in rhythm to my music. It really does not fit, until I’m riding on the train one day and I break out my oldskool tunes on my iPod, classics by Faithless, Arman Van Helden and The Prodigy. Suddenly I’m holding myself back from standing up and raising my hands to the roof of the train carriage. I feel this ball of electric energy, sparkling small stars stirring at the base of my spine, slowly building up and rising through my back, up my torso and neck and then making its escape down my arms and through my hands and head. It’s a feeling, a release of energy I only get through dancing…but it’s so much more than that. It is a spiritual, religious experience where music is the mantra, the club is my temple and the DJ my god.

I have been reading about meditation recently, in fact I have tried meditating many times and more recently during my yoga course. I was never any good at it, my mind always wanders and I get frustrated, resulting in increased anxiety rather than the desired enlightenment. I read enlightenment be described as a snake coiled at the base of the spine, or a ball of light energy that unravels almost gradually. Having never achieved enlightenment through meditation or yoga I did not lose hope but instead accepted that it may take a lot more training and/or time and I would probably achieve it when least expected.

It all snapped into place this instance on the train though. I have been looking at it all wrong: not realizing that I have achieved enlightenment several times and over a span of years. In addition, it has almost always happened on the dance floor, in moments of pure joy and solitude, being lost in the music and the surroundings, this experience of divine love shared by the universe and all its constituents. Like all the yogis tell me, enlightenment is sacred moments of this feeling with the ultimate goal being to have the ability to experience this feeling constantly. It’s overwhelming even trying to imagine being this happy all the time. I still have not given up hope though and at least I am getting closer to the truth. I now know why I’m also obsessed with music: it is my tool, in combination with dancing that unlocks enlightenment, happiness and the constant being in the present moment. It all makes sense now…

Angela Lymberis

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TT: Please introduce yourself

G’day. My name is Wayne. I’m your average Aussie bloke. I like my beer, I like my footy, I like good lookin’ sheilas and I like jawing off with my mates. And I don’t dance much.

TT: Why not?

I’m no brain surgeon, but the way I see it, people shouldn’t be surprised that more Aussie blokes don’t dance much. The reason is simple….it’s all about motivation – there’s no bloody incentive for us to dance.

Look at who dances. Chicks and poofs. Both seem to like it. Both seem to be good at it. Both look good doing it – except the poofs (although I’m sure other homos like it). Why the hell would any self-respecting bloke WANT to go and embarrass himself on the dance floor?

TT: I thought you Aussie blokes were laid-back, down to earth, ready to have a bit of fun and always happy to get up and have a go?

Nah, don’t get me wrong. We might come and have a dance with you when you’re bored with your friends, or when we see you’re on the prowl but we’ll only get out there when we’re good and ready. When we transition from beer/footy/mates to sex, we might be interested. I’ll even give you a few guiding principles:

1. The footy has to be over
2. Between 5-7 beers and 3-4 bourbons/rumbos have gone down the hatch
3. ‘You’ – the girl – come looking, even begging, for us blokes

TT: You say that you’ll be embarrassing yourself by dancing, but you’re not embarrassed by being so drunk you can’t even stand up?

So I go back to my point. Where’s the incentive? You girls have single-handedly passed complete control of the situation to us blokes. We don’t get punished for not dancing. We get rewarded for dancing (badly) for about an hour when we’re so drunk it doesn’t matter.

Let’s leave the status quo as it is. Blokes like watching the footy, drinking beer and gobbin’ off with our mates. Chicks like dancing. Simple.

TT: There’s something not quite right here. You blokes say you like women yet you won’t dance with them. You’d much rather hang out and drink with other blokes. You refer to blokes on the dance floor as gay, yet everyone knows that a bloke who can dance is going to get a lot more action with the ladies than the drunken one getting into fights near the bar.

Don’t get your knickers in a twist. Do you dancers really want a bunch of unco goofy blokes bumbling around the dance floor? I don’t think so.

TT: Actually we do, because practice makes perfect and a man that can dance is usually more open to improving his performance in other areas like the bedroom.

[Wayne left the building – beer in hand. Hopefully he’ll return for another round…of debating. Please take this discussion to the forum].

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