Musing

We Can Dance

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Friday Faithfuls
Dance Like No One Is Watching.
These are my thoughts.

This week at Friday Faithfuls, Jim Adams has asked us to respond to his theme “Dance Like No One Is Watching” by writing anything about dance, if we learned how to dance, if we enjoy dancing or if we feel uncomfortable on the dance floor because we have two left feet. Do we enjoy watching others dance? Did we dance at our proms or weddings and do we remember the song that was playing? We can write about what type of dancing we enjoy or explain why more women than men seem to enjoy dancing. Or we can go with anything else we thing fits.

Ever since I was a 4 year old kid and did a jig for my kindergarten talent show wearing a little pig costume, I have loved to dance. We were always up on the dance floor at family weddings doing the tarantella, the cha cha, the lindy, the twist and more. My sister and I never had dance lessons; we just got up and moved around like everyone else. Our older cousins Clair, Marie and Marianne taught us dance steps and we watched shows like American Bandstand to learn the latest dance moves.

When I was 16 years old, a boy named Martin who lived nearby asked me to his Senior Prom at the all-boy school he attended. It was the first formal dance I ever went to and it was a big deal; however, I was so disappointed to discover Martin didn’t know how to dance and had no interest in dancing. I spent part of the night dancing with other guys but I didn’t want to leave Martin sitting at our table like a bump on a log so I turned down a lot of offers to dance.

Ordinary people who really know how to dance and do it well always fascinate me; they look so elegant and weightless floating across the floor. My husband Bill can make up moves to a fast dance but he never learned how to slow dance; we just hold each other and sway with the music or take little side steps. That’s fine with us; slow dancing isn’t so much about dancing as it is being in the arms of the one you love.

For me it all comes down to this: we can dance if we want to.

🎶   🎶   🎶   🎶   🎶

Men Without Hats is a Canadian new wave and synth-pop band originally from Montreal, Quebec. Their music is characterized by their elaborate use of synthesizers and electronic processing as well as the distinctive baritone voice of lead singer and writer Ivan Doroschuk. They achieved their greatest popularity in the 1980s with “The Safety Dance”, a worldwide top ten hit.

When asked to explain the meaning of “The Safety Dance”, Doroschuk explained that it is a protest song against dance club bouncers who prohibited dancers from ‘pogoing’ to 1980s new wave music. The dance craze involved keeping the upper body rigid while jumping up and down. Club-goers doing the pogo dance were perceived as posing a danger to other dancers; if the pogo-ers did not stop dancing after being warned, they were kicked out of the dance club. The song, according to Doroschuk, is a call for freedom of expression.

This is “The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats. You can dance if you want to!

Dance Like No One is Watching

Thank you to Jim Adams for another fascinating topic and thank you for stopping by for a look and a listen.

That’s all she wrote. See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2025

All rights reserved for Nancy’s Notes 🖊️🎶, The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, The Rhythm Section, et al., and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

46 thoughts on “We Can Dance”

      1. Well, yeah, these days, sure. That option is off the table. But when I was younger and wanted to be able to dance, between my two left feet and my total lack of rhythm, the dance gods just didn’t come into alignment for me. But my wife didn’t complain too much. At least I tried.

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  4. Unfortunately for me, my high school years were spent on a stage playing the rock music that the rest of the teens danced to: I never learned to “cut a rug,” as they say. Who is “they?” Momo, the missus, is a dancer to be reckoned with, she had ambitions of becoming a Rockette and do the high kick at RCMH. Somewhere along the line, life go in her way, kids, dogs, mini-vans and all that goes with that. She and I do dance, still, but not as well as we once did. Here in Hicksville, Texas, we do cowboy dances: the two step, the four step, and the run for your life step when a brawl breaks out in the bar. I tend to dance like Trump now, bad foot and leg and such, so I look a bit dodgy. Glad you are still able to shuffle a bit.

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    1. We can shuffle with the best of them but my macarena days are behind me. One of my friends is a former Rockette; after her high kicking days, she landed a job as the secretary to the DRE (Director of Religious Education) at our church. I was surprised to learn she was a former Rockette as she’d gotten a bit broad in the beam. Hey, it happens to the best of us. There’s a small town on Long Island NY called Hicksville. There’s also an area in CT called Mianus but I’m not gonna touch that one.

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  6. My parents were extremely strict and did not approve of dancing. I was never allowed to go to dances, or to any event where dancing might occur (even if I promised not to dance), or even to watch dancing on TV. So I never learned how to dance, and it’s always been one of the greatest regrets of my life.

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  11. I love to dance. I think you and your husband can dance anyway you want to, you guys have been together for 53 years! Lol. Love your song choice as always! 🎶 *dances*

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    1. We learn all sorts of things about our fellow WordPressers, don’t we?

      The inability to play certain vids is frustrating AF. I have found while doing my Weird Al posts that I am unable to open his original videos but the hi def versions play just fine. I have no explanation for that. Do you?

      I’m glad you enjoyed MWH. Thanks, Clive.

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      1. I’ve no idea why that happens either, but have also had problems with Weird Al videos. Copyright, perhaps?

        A snippet you may not have seen is that the video, by the way, was filmed in the village of West Kington, in Wiltshire. The dancer is Louise Court, who later went on to be editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine and a director of Hearst Magazines in the UK. Interesting start to her career!

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          1. It was something I found while I was writing about the song, probably appealed as it was a British connection.

            No trouble at all. The problem I have had with them is finding that they were blocked from being shared, which I’ve never understood.

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  16. Damn … your video was ‘not available in Australia’ … I did a search on my YouTube and found it! … very enjoyable indeed, Nancy … Here’s one of my fav’ dance songs, by The Strumbellas (another good Canadian band) “Young and Wild”

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    1. The copyright laws are frustrating sometimes. I’m glad you were able to find The Safety Dance by YouTubing on your own. Thanks for this video by The Strumbellas; I’m hearing a young Bono in the lead singer’s voice. G’day, dear Ivor! 🌞

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