When I was younger I learned to swing dance by taking lessons from my then-girlfriend, and then we went to a swing club (get your mind out of the gutter) in our town and danced. It was very fun, especially since you get dressed to the nines before you go, wearing period appropriate attire. Most people don't really learn to dance though, that's a part of our upbringing and education that is dying. Lots of people go to nightclubs, get drunk, and gyrate to the music on the dance floor. Every once in awhile you'll see someone out there that actually knows what they're doing, and they always get a lot of positive attention and reinforcement from the crowd. But I haven't been to a nightclub in 15 years, so idk if that's still happening. The social world has changed a lot since I was a young adult.
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I dance where I work. I have a standing desk and dance to music to focus on brainy tasks.
We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind. Because your friends don't dance and if they don't dance, well, they're no friends of mine.
This is actually a great question, but it doesn't have one answer.
Usually people learn their first "dancing" at home from their parents or siblings, or maybe even at school at dances. Most of these are just simple movement to music, like a slow dance, or just a step back and forth kinda thing.
Usually people then pick up some sort of "moves" by seeing other people do them, often in popular media like tv shows, movies, music videos, etc.
This is where most people stop.
Then there's the people who want to DANCE. And a lot of those go to dance studios or join a dance club as kids or youth, or even as an adult, and learn both different moves and full choreography for entire songs where there's intentional patterns of moves in series.
Like most things these days, you can also do that alone with some youtube videos in your bedroom. If they need more space, they may go practice outside. Pick a move, learn it, pick another move, learn it. String them together into your own choreography, or copy the choreography from a video you found.
As you get a bit into the dance scene and are confident enough to do it in front of others, there start to be times and places you can go to show off. I'm not just talking about competitions, but even parties hosted just to cater to dancers. Often with specific music types for a specific type of dancing.
Dancing is awesome. I never got very good at it, but it's very healthy.
Dance clubs.
I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but when are you supposed to do that? Is it, like, when that song comes on, you plan to incorporate it at the right time, or just whenever you want?
You can dance if you want to. You can leave your friends behind, cause if your friends don’t want to dance then they ain’t no friends of mine.
You just kinda freestyle it. Jump in and out when you want. Just match the beat of the song. More complicated, practiced dances are usually only seen at an entertainment venue. A dance off/dance competition, a ballet, etc. The middle ground might be weddings. People dance at those, and it's not just freestyling to a beat because it's a party. A fancy wedding might do a waltz or someshit. But not tap dancing.
yeah. you just kinda wiggle with the music. more complex dance moves are practiced.
Many already said how people start dancing. I'll add some things to keep in mind:
1- culture is a massive factor: nobody mentioned birthday parties. I'm going to presume kids don't dance at birthday parties in English speaking countries, but elsewhere in the world you have birthdays and I'm going to guess other festivities in other cultures include dancing. That's a major step before you are old enough to go clubbing. Freestyle in the case of birthdays, but you also need to keep in mind my next point,...
2- TV, Music videos, Videogames and whatever media in which people see these moves also helps people learn them. It's not uncommon for a small group of friends trying out if they can do this Celebrity Move like in Such Video Clip or whatever and this can happen while they hang out anywhere, even during school breaks.
So yes, if you have the inclination for dancing you have plenty of opportunities to practice and learn as you grow.
Clubs and bars around here occasionally have country line dancing night, but other than that I just go see live music and if it moves me, I dance.
Much of your choice of moves comes down to your partner.
In a place where dancing happen people are usually helpful and know more than basics, so i’d not say unprompted. Dancing is about promoting.
While it might seem obvious, I know people who just dance on spot in public when they hear a song. They might not even hear a song, they might sing it instead. I also know people who like to dance in their room (as someone else here mentioned). They might not use the very complex moves though, I dont know if you ask specifically for these.
People probably use more "serious" moves in dance classes/events/clubs.
PS. I'm too shy to dance and I ~always admire people who do (especially when you see that they don't do it forcefully, they just express themselves). I'm doing some dance classes to improve my situation, hopefully I might make it, or at least I'll have tried🤷
Some unsolicited advice from a former too shy to dance person, who somehow also manage to get my too shy to dance partner dancing, the key for me is knowing that I'll look like an idiot.
I haven't really done any classes. My SO's favourite "move" of mine is me absolutely making a fool of myself involving me stiffly bobbing my whole body to the beat kind of like a pogo stick. Once you've accepted that you're corny and you are born on the cob you just gotta move to the beat. You taking dance lessons already make you a better dancer than 90% of us out there.
This isn't far from how I sort of broke out was a wedding dancer. I don't mean professionally, I just mean not being too afraid to even stand on the dance floor and knowing I'll probably rank somewhere in the top half of "trying their best" and top 10% of "having the most fun". It always takes alcohol to loosen me up, but it took a series of events to break out the first time.
How? One year, I had 7 weddings to go to. The first was close family that was a bore for me. The second was friends of friends, about 95% of which I'd never see again in my life... And it clicked. I will probably never see 50+% at any wedding again, so why not just be a goof? Turns out, if you're shy about dancing but surrounded by equally terrible dancers, they can't really tell if you're bad. Or I can't tell the difference when inebriated. Either one, doesn't matter, you'll never see them again (you keep telling yourself). The following 5 weddings were better than any prior in my life.
After that, I started watching the people I admired as stars of the dance floor. I tried copying them. It's not so much about having a library of moves so much as it is having a general body move, some arm flair, maybe leg flair for drops and choruses. And rhythm. Having timing is a big part. I'm pretty sure I don't. From what I can tell, once I start bopping, my internal metronome takes over and runs 5% off tempo. But whatever, I'll never see these people again.
That and getting a Halloween costume I can use year round for in-character bullshit. Just be who you want to be. The majority of people you meet don't know the real you, so just do it. They don't know you're lying.
Anyway, this led me to an amusing sobriety test of sorts. It goes a little past just the dissociating nerves feeling. If I still think dancing is a good idea, it is NOT time for me to drive.
I don't know if this rambling will help anyone, especially because I tend to sense a strong anti-alcohol vibe in these social activity posts. Especially because I realize part of this lowering of inhibitions comes from getting older. But it happened to me and it can happen to you's
There are barn dances every Monday night at the Irish American Heritage Center here in Chicago. Usually Contras and some Waltzes, every so often a Square. The IAHC also hosts Ceili dances but that's less accessible for beginners.
I know there are Swing clubs and Salsa clubs throughout town as well.
Also:
- Weddings
- School dances
- Block Parties
- House Parties
- at home with romantic partner and family
- work parties
Lots of places, anywhere you can really
Just picked up swing - we’re just starting our 50’s and I never learned to dance. Two short courses this autumn and back again in january for 3 more until april.
There are dace-halls and clubs, but here in Norway its kinda fringe culture so you need to look for it. No fancy nightclubs or stuff like that as far as I know that have dance floors and music. There are huge dance parties in sports halls and the likes in the weekends. But they are far out and about.
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