The Safety Dance

You can dance if you want to

This week we have another song that kept me singing at odd moments throughout the week. Nothing like cooking dinner to a little Safety Dance.

The Safety Dance

Men Without Hats, 1982

Every now and then a new dance appears. Each new dance craze looks absurd.

Dancing is a way of moving our bodies through space. So any new dance trend will seem strange. Several people moving together amplify the strangeness.

And, like any new trend, it signals to people doing the previous dance that they are out of date.

In our age of airplanes crashing into buildings and a global pandemic, it’s difficult to believe that, at one point, bouncers got worked up about people jumping up and down in place. For some reason, these pogoing dancers were deemed a threat to the other dancers on the floor.

Of course, the “other” dancers were disco dancers and the pogo dancers part of the New Wave. I guess clubs saw Disco as the long-term trend to support.

This song is a battle cry, a declaration that pogoing won’t be stopped, damnit.

Now, why does this Canadian group sound so Celtic?

The song feels transcribed from the bagpipe repertoire. A drone (from a synth, not pipes) underscores the song, providing a foundation from which the melody lilts. And a second synth vibrates like bagpipe reeds.

The accompanying video enhances this Celtic effect. The conceit is a mildly angry renaissance faire. I really expected to see fewer hats.

A few years ago, I crossed paths with Men Without Hats.

My wife and I drove up to Montreal to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Our stay, unbeknownst to us, just happened to coincide with a huge jazz festival. We perused the list of acts and stages, recognized and few of the artists.

And then I saw Men Without Hats listed. What the heck? First of all, I had assumed they were from the UK. Nope, Canadian. But why a jazz festival?

The only answer is when you’ve got a moderately famous hometown act, you put them on a stage. It could have been a juggling convention and Men Without Hats would’ve had a spot.

I’d like to say we went to the show. I’d like to say that, but I can’t. It was our anniversary so we ate a nice meal and relaxed. I would have liked to catch Phronesis doing their set though.

I’ll bet there wasn’t much pogoing at the jazz festival. Nonetheless, we would have seen various in-groups signaling group affinity through their outfits, hairstyles, music choices, and dances.

We can leave your friends behind

Cause your friends don't dance

And if they don't dance

Well, they're no friends of mine

Sheesh, that seems harsh. Let’s lighten things up. Here’s Weird Al Yankovich’s cover of Safety Dance:

That’s better. A nice palette cleanser.

Now we can tackle the big question. Does it matter how you dance?

I would suggest that how you dance is one of the most telling aspects about you. Are you up-tight? Afraid? Out of control? Lost in the joy of the present moment? Focused on technical precision?

Your chosen dance connects you to a particular group identity. But just like our identity is fluid and we play many roles in life, the right dance for us depends upon time and place. It’s all about context, baby.

The 80s had some iconic dances: the cabbage patch, the moon walk, MC Hammer’s dance, and the more enduring Running Man.

And then dances from movies of the decade: Dirty Dancing, Footloose, Flashdance. Heck, even Teen Wolf. I guess it was more of a dancing decade than I remembered. Possibly because I only really started dancing as an adult, when I finally learned to let go and experience the moment. Some parts of life only work when you commit to being silly. I’m slowly learning that adding a bit of silly makes most things better.

Those bouncers didn’t think so. They put a stop to those pogoing hooligans.

Was there every any danger to disco dancers? Basic literacy of Physics says no. Unless those New Wave fans were jumping so high that unsuspecting disco dancers were boogie-oogie-oogying underneath them and getting body slammed.

Okay, I’m back after watching a few minutes of pogoing video. What they meant was “mosh pit”. Yeah, those groovy disco dancers need to get the hell away from that.

So I dance more now than I ever did as a child. I hope my kids can skip the part of life where they feel too self-conscious to physically express joy.

They’ll eventually get embarrassed by their dad jumping around the living room, but that won’t stop me. That’s part of the lesson.