So, Why Aren't We Dancing Anymore?
- Christina Redondo
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Dance floors are empty. Parties are stiff.
You feel it, I feel it, we all feel it. It's time to name it and talk about it.
In post #1 of this series (Are We Really Not Dancing Like We Used To?)
-We define spontaneous dance
-Give the briefest overview in the history of brief overviews of history
-And confirm your notion that, yes it’s true, spontaneous dance is disappearing.
This post goes into the systemic, cultural and psychological reasons why.
There’s Been a Campaign Against Collective Joy Since Forever
Let’s start by going back in time.
My favorite book (so far) on this topic is Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy by Barbara Ehrenreich. She talks about the evolutionary purpose of dance (which I explain in Post #3 of this series) and how truly essential and powerful it is for group connection.
Now, who on earth would feel threatened by groups connecting in powerful ways? You guessed it - those at the top of the hierarchy who depend on the control and domination of their subordinates. Since the dawn of oppression, dancing has been on the list of things that have been suppressed, which should tell you just how powerful it really is. Otherwise they wouldn’t work so hard to squash it.
No one was hit harder and more devastatingly than Indigenous and African communities, but anyone deemed “less than” has been punished - women, other enslaved and colonized peoples, and the poor and working class. This has played out across cultures and continents, again and again. The history is heavy, and violent.
This tells us something loud and clear: music and dance have always been a threat to power.
But the beautiful twist? It never fully works. No matter how much they try to suppress it, people always find a way to move. To gather. To sing. To dance. This is how much a part of our human spirit these things are.
And so the elites have no choice but to make space for it, even if it's just a sliver. Instead, they use psychological and trickle-down tactics to control it, by pushing the idea that it’s more “civilized” to refrain from such frivolous-ness, that it’s more important to be rational, productive, and focused on work, discipline, self-control, and constant achievement. Dancing is stupid, unless you are learning it from an institution and perfecting it for the stage (i.e. unless it’s controlled.)
So this is a battle that’s kind of always secretly going on in the background. White supremacist notions of perfectionism, productivity, and that public displays of joy are lower-class, childish, and unserious, is a shadow looming over us that we've internalized on a macro and micro level.
The Chicken or The Egg
There’s been something else declining since the 1960s.
The work of sociologist Robert Putnam centers around something called social capital: the networks, connections, and ultimately - the trust - that holds communities together.
(*More resources linked below, you should definitely peep the podcast).
He measures social capital in a number of ways, which we won’t get into here. But here’s the gist: from the Gilded Age (1880’s) through the 1960s, it was steadily rising. We were becoming more connected, more involved, more invested in one another.
But the 1960s marked a turning point, where we saw hard-won social and civil justice victories, but also the isolating forces of technology, cars and suburban living. Since then, social capital has been on the decline, and today, we’re seeing the lowest levels in recent history.
What does this mean in basic terms? Today - people don’t trust each other. We don’t trust strangers, our neighbors, our bosses. We don’t trust institutions. We don’t trust the government. And when we don't trust each other, we only think about ourselves (because we're in survival mode). To be honest, it makes sense, because trust requires trustworthiness. And many of the systems, institutions, and relationships around us are fractured.
When those at the top treat people as disposable, disconnected, or undeserving, that mindset trickles into everything (top-down). We start treating each other that way too. But historically, the real shifts, like those seen during the Progressive Era (see photo above), started with everyday people, not the systems. Trust has to be rebuilt from the bottom-up. And that means relearning how to show up for one another.
Sometimes I wonder - what came first?
Did we stop trusting because we stopped dancing and spending time together in real life? Or did we stop dancing because trust and social connection were already unraveling?
Hard to say, but no doubt, they’re deeply linked.
How We've Internalized it All
These systems and cultural shifts don’t just shape society, they get under our skin and affect us personally. The silent weapons of white supremacist culture have been amplified by technology: perfectionism, surveillance-culture, social anxiety, and imposter syndrome to name a few. Not because of technology itself, I’d like to add, but because of the psychological norms swirling around us as we use it.
We live in a time when people are afraid to fail, afraid to offend, afraid to look stupid. Feeling unsafe - physically and emotionally - has become the norm. Even the smallest discomfort can shut us down completely.
So of course, this shows up on the dance floor. Dancing is one of the most vulnerable things you can do with your body. What if someone laughs at you? Sexualizes you? Or what if you’re in your own head judging yourself? Any little thing can suck the joy right out of it.
I've been keeping a growing list of these fears and barriers over the years, to try and understand how deep this goes.
So, here’s where we’re at:
Post #1 confirms spontaneous dance is disappearing (you might enjoy reading it!)
This post digs into why.
Now it’s time to get into the heart of it: why does this even matter?
In a world full of bigger problems, it’s easy to not take the disappearance of spontaneous dance seriously. But I promise you - it's all connected.
Check out Post #3 of this series here: Is Dance the Medicine We're All Ignoring?
*Resources to learn more about social capital:
(podcast) 10% Happier Podcast, Episode titled: How You Can Help End Polarization and Inequality - and Get Happier, Too with Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett
(book) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert Putnam
(book) The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again by Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett
(movie) Join or Die on Netflix
^ I highly highly recommend this podcast and/or this movie if you don't have time to read two 500 page books!
*This is Post 2 of a larger Series: The Dance We're Missing.
Posts 1-3 describe what's going on:
So, Why Aren't We Dancing Anymore? (this post)
Posts 4-5 make it personal:
Posts 6-8 explore the way forward (coming soon):
How to Make the Dance Floor Safe Again
The Formula for Collective Ecstasy
Are You Partying Enough?
