“I feel good, I knew that I would!
I feel good, I knew that I would, now!
So good, so good, I got you! ~~James Brown
I remember dancing with my dad to this James Brown tune when I was just 6 or 7 years old. My dad had just got home from work, and that song was playing on his transistor radio. I was reading a book, but when that song started, he quickly put down his lunchbox, I put down my book, we kicked off shoes and sneakers, and shimmied, shaked, and slid around the room! Good times…
I abso-friggin-lutely love dancing!
I love the feeling of my body reacting to the beat of the music. I love the sensations: sweat dripping down my face and the curve of my back, my fingers snapping, hips and pelvis gyrating, feet stamping and twirling, the air vibrating to the bass against my skin. I love the feeling of other bodies around me: movin’ and groovin’ to the beat. I love the visceral feeling of not processing the experience mentally, just letting my body respond and lead and control what it wants to do.
I grew up during the years of disco. Back then, friends and I would pile into the car and head down to the discos at the Jersey shore. Disco was a space for all races, ages, and lifestyles to meet on the dance floor, loud and pulsing and charged with flamboyant, physical energy. I didn’t drink much or do drugs (in fact, I was the designated driver before there officially WERE ‘designated drivers’!). I didn’t need intoxicants—the beat was my drug. I could dance for hours, trancing out on the experience, and be even more invigorated and super-charged the next day.
It turns out there are good reasons for that. Because dance is exercise, it conveys the physical and emotional benefits of exercise.
Dance can improve cardiovascular health, balance and strength, helps boost your mood, can be a social activity, and is highly inclusive—no matter your age or physical make-up, if you can move, you can dance!
Movement and dance are also extremely expressive. When I dance I drop the issues and worries of the day, even if just for a few minutes, and ‘let loose.’ It reduces stress and just feels good.
Some 50+ years after those James Brown sessions with my dad, I’m still dancing. Sometimes, I go to the local San Antonio spot, The Bonham Exchange (I am panting for the day when it reopens—Amanda and Leilani—we’re there!), get my bottled water, scope out which room I want to start in, and start moving. And when I'm there, I'm sometimes just bobbing to the beat, and other times clearing a swathe across the dance floor. Sometimes, I am just in my house, alone, shaking my groove thang when an irresistible tune comes up on Spotify.
Mostly, I’m just feeling—the music, the beat, and my body.
“You can dance, You can jive, Having the time of your life
Ooh, see that girl, Watch that scene, Digging the dancing queen!” ~~ABBA
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