The Essence of Social Dancing.

Dancing makes me feel strongly throughout my body. One of the best things about dancing is these strong feelings, especially the extreme positive ones, the joy of dancing. For me, it is the ultimate reward of hours and hours of practicing and learning dance-technical details. I tend to get these extreme feelings mostly from small but oh-so-wonderful moments of dancing with someone socially. There is just something very pure and unique about those moments!

As you have noticed, this is also what I mostly write about, because for me it is the most interesting and addictive part of dancing. It creates so much energy inside of me that I need to get it out and share it. However, there is another reason why I write so much about it. Sometimes I feel that writing my blog is the only way of releasing some of that energy, because talking about it might be too much for some to receive. It has happened many times that I feel I should be really careful of what I say or express. It can happen that I talk too much about my dancing experiences and others get bored of hearing about the same topic over and over again. Alternatively, my excitement might be misunderstood as arrogance: “oh I had this amazing dance and therefore I’m such a great dancer, better than you”, or “I had a great connection with this and this person and therefore he likes dancing with me the most”, or “I had mind-blowing dance with another leader, so now I’m comparing it to dancing with you”. But believe me, this is exactly the opposite of my intention.

Let’s make one thing clear: social dancing doesn’t include such thing as competition. Dance competitions are a totally different world with different basis. Social dancing is not about who is having the most fun or the best dances; even to measure these factors is impossible. Having a great dance with someone doesn’t take anything away from anyone. There is either no point of comparing one dance connection with another one, because each and every one is unique. Having an amazing dance with someone doesn’t prevent me, or my partner, to have other amazing dances with many others, and there is no point of feeling bad when this happens. Dancing with other dancers won’t take away the fact that what you had in that moment you shared with that specific partner was and always will be one of a kind and cannot ever be repeated.

I have to admit that I used to get jealous of other followers when they were having great time in the dance floor. “I wish he danced the same way with me”, I used to think. I had convinced myself that their strong connection would make me somehow worse off. It is true that I, as probably everyone else, like dancing with some dancers more than with other dancers. However, it is impossible to put those dancers in line and measure with who I like dancing with the most, second, third etc. More importantly, there is even no reason of doing such measurement, because each dance connection is separate in a way that they cannot take something away from the other. Amazing dance with someone doesn’t make another dance with someone else any less amazing (or rather, any less anything). On the other hand, an amazing dance with someone doesn't guarantee another as amazing dance with the same person. Now having this mindset, I can fully enjoy watching other dancers having the time of their lives in the dance floor, because I know it doesn’t take anything away from me, but rather adds more positive energy around me. A good example of this way of thinking was during the last weekend in WCS event FinFest. I was having a horrible night: it was one of those I felt that I couldn't dance at all, nothing just seemed to work. However, I was able to fully enjoy watching others having a great night without getting negative thoughts of them at all. Why would I feel bad seeing others having fun?

I feel bad if someone takes my dancing excitement negatively. It is not my intention to put anyone down or lift myself up with my hyping. I simply want to share what is so great about dancing: those tiny but precious moments. What I especially don’t want to, or can’t, do is to try to hide or block the positive energy I’ve received from dancing. I regard this energy should be shared and that this should be a topic that everyone should feel comfortable discussing. I don't want to be afraid of saying or showing how great I feel or how deeply I fell in love during a dance, and neither should you. After all, this positive energy is one of the best things in dancing.

So, share your energy, express your feelings, get excited, show your enjoyment and forget jealousy.

To finish off: Bruno&Eglantine's demo from their

Helsinki weekend. Enjoy!