Who has not been enchanted by Gene Kelly splashing through puddles in his exuberant song and dance in the pouring rain? It is one of my favorite movie scenes of all time.
Dancing and singing are powerful expressions of human emotion. Everyone loves to see a talented dancer or listen to a beautiful song. But as our society becomes ever more addicted to social media and streaming services – TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Netflix, etc. – the amount of time that we ourselves spend singing or dancing has become very tiny indeed.
What has changed? From all reports, earlier societies had traditional dances and songfests with everyone participating. Singing and dancing were important cultural touchpoints and reflected the joy and sometimes the sorrow of the human spirit in communal form.
Nowadays, teenagers and young adults will sing and dance only at concerts or weddings, and by the time they get just a bit older only the loss of inhibition due to significant alcohol will inspire them to get out on the dance floor or sing, and only at the occasional wedding.
And the men are the worst. A lot of men absolutely refuse to dance, even at weddings. And they would never be tempted to break into song on any occasion. The sole exceptions to this are times of pure drunken revelry, which are not generally very healthy cultural events.
What is going on here? Has self-consciousness become the plague of our times or have we just become lazy and unwilling to let go? Perhaps part of the problem is that we no longer gather in groups and create our own entertainment. We go to restaurants, or to a party or social gathering, but there is almost never a chance to sing or dance at these events.
It is also difficult to have people sing together because the music scene changes so rapidly and there is not a common songbook that everyone knows by heart. And dancing has primarily become random movement, entangled swaying or fairly explicit grinding rather than the learned patterns that one sees in folk dances, ballroom dancing or line dancing.
I will insert a disclaimer here that I am mainly talking about white, American culture. I suspect that Hispanic and African-American groups, and perhaps other countries, have a bit less reluctance to sing or dance, but I am also fearful that they too are slowly being infected with the virus of social media and streaming voyeurism.
There are still a few enclaves of avid dancers – Texas line dancers, International folk dancers, square dancers – to name a few. But sadly, these dancers are a small minority and generally qualify as hobbyists.
The same is true for singing. There are choirs and choruses and rock bands and a cappella groups, but again, a small minority of people participate.
There is something very primal, cathartic and powerful in singing and dancing, especially as part of a group or community. One experiences the triumph of a shared humanity over the individual ego or performance. It is a shame that we are rapidly losing the opportunity to experience this shared exuberance as a break from our individual striving and often lonely existence.
