It's everywhere, everywhere!

Today's New York Times has an article by John Rockwell about the recent prevalence of ballroom dancing. I've found that reviews written by John Rockwell, a dance critic for the Times, are well written, so I was curious to see his take on this phenomenon. In addition to calling the glitz of the movies and TV shows "Las Vegas meets ice dancing," he makes this comment:

"Aside from our fox-trotting Republicans, most of whom (like most Americans) would probably now prefer Vegas-style flash, the new popularity of ballroom dancing suggests a possible decline in free-form, solo self-expression on the dance floor. A Bush-era rejection of the dreaded 60's, if you will. To be sure, John Travolta's disco dancing was plenty rehearsed, plenty flashy. But dancing by yourself, opposite a partner but only sketchily interacting with that partner, is a lot easier than learning a real partnered dance, and hence more democratically open if less artistically interesting."

I'm not sure I buy the connection with democratic self-expression. It could be that our society has gotten so homogenized and impersonal that people are looking for ways to connect more directly with other people. What better way to get a feel for someone than to feel them? Like Frank Sinatra sings on a CD I just bought:

Strangers in the night, two lonely people We were strangers in the night Up to the moment When we said our first hello. Little did we know Love was just a glance away, A warm embracing dance away...

[The CD is called Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years. The first song is "The Last Dance," kind of a strange choice, but the CD is ordered chronologically. This song was recorded in 1960, and it's yummy. One begins to understand why he was so popular with the ladies.]