Come on, let's DANCE!

Pandora is blasting in my ear.  It's good that you can have tailored music along with sun in Hayward.  Even in the morning. It makes a person dance.  Well, the music in particular makes you dance, even if the sun is blocked by your window treatments.

When I was finishing my bachelor degree, and even to some extent while I was pursuing my masters, I would dance in my room. It was a daily occurrence.  This was especially true when I was bored or if I had pent up energy.Growing up in an urban setting, I was exposed to a lot of popular dance forms from the 'hood. This meant a combination of West African folk, pop lockin, general hip hop, and break dancing.  Occasionally you'd see someone swing some glow sticks around for the one techno song.  In college I added to my repetoire by including belly dancing, swing and salsa. I was friends with a bunch of international students and we would conjure a boom box and take it to one of the large halls in a dorm and dance to whatever MP3s we had on hand.  This meant primarily a mixture of Latin and hip hop. At the international parties you could add in some arabic and techno as well as the few select groups that fused various ethnic music (i.e. World).

SF Dance Fest

Since I hadn't been dancing as much as I used to in front of a larger mirror,  I decided to change that.  Since I've been dancing in front of my large mirror in my living room to a mix that Pandora only knows, I seem to be a bit happier (if also more toned).  You see, moving in a beat makes you happy.  It is something your body knows well - everything in the body is done with rhythm.  So when you move just to move in a beat, it just magnifies what your body is doing normally.  Singing along often helps too (again the creation of rhythms has a similar effect to moving in a rhythm). 

I'm sharing this with you because I think the world needs more dancing.  When I was in Punjab some of my friends would randomly break out into Bhangra in cafes, restaurants, and even the street if there was music available. My dad and I used to dance in stores both because we liked the music playing, but also because we wanted to embarass my brother.  This only worked until he started dancing too, which wasn't a loss, because it meant more people were dancing in the store. I like that.  More people should do that. They wouldn't need to take so much prozac.