99 reasons to dance
You should be dancin’, yeah.
The Bee Gees
Why dance? Why not? The best reason to dance is simply to dance, of course. But if you really need an excuse, try these.
- To play like a child
- To heal thyself
- To breathe and make breath visible
- To connect with other people
- To explore solitude
- To remember the past
- To release the past
- To remember who you are
- To forget yourself
10. To sweat out toxins
11. To more fully experience music
12. To feel emotion
13. To release emotion
14. To experiment with nonverbal expression
15. To go where no man has gone before
16. To engage in an internal inquiry. “How am I? Who am I? Why am I here? What’s for dinner?”
17. To meditate
18. To honor your grandmother
19. To play at the edge of physical capability
20. To practice courage
21. To experience that which has no further reason, meaning, or purpose.
22. To reconnect to the earth through your feet
23. To energize
24. To relax
25. To reflect on what is happening in the world without collapsing in a ball of inaction.
26. For fun
27. To share energy and matter with the environment
28. To experience love everlasting
29. To make contact
30. To explore intimacy with strangers
31. To float like a butterfly and sting like a bee
32. To work up an appetite
33. To end hunger
34. To keep the nonnative invasive species out of the garden
35. To return to the garden
36. To connect with the mystical
37. To connect with the mythical
38. To connect with the metaphysical
39. Because you can
40. Because you are temporary
41. Because there is something undeniably eternal about dancing
42. Because you can’t help yourself from dancing
43. Because you can help yourself by dancing
44. Because the devil made you do it
45. Because the angels want you to do it
46. To widen you circle of compassion
47. To build sexual tension
48. Release sexual tension
49. To celebrate life
50. To mourn the dead
51. To express glory and praise
52. To take myself seriously
53. To appreciate the weight of the world
54. To lighten up
55. To experience a state of flow
56. To remember how to play
57. To communicate
58. To work up an appetite
59. To burn calories
60. To consciously experience what it is to experience
61. To allow unconscious experience to inform conscious experience
62. To issue in the dawning of a new day
63. To crush grapes
64. To dry the polish off my toenails
65. To consciously participate in the flow of energy that moves through you
66. To enhance experience of the beauty that surrounds you
67. To experience the presence of life
68. To act out your deepest, darkest desires
69. To pick up chicks or dudes
70. To play with your shadow
71. To shake off the worries of the day
72. To allow the environment to swallow you whole
73. To enjoy what we might not even have noticed
74. To notice what would be lost
75. To burn off poisons and to sweat them out
76. To pray for other people who might be sick or suffering
77. To make money (as in dancing with a pole or taking your clothes off)
78. To get warm so as to save money on heating bills
79. To get warm so as to burn a few extra calories
80. To allow for accidental to emerge
81. To experiment with experience
82. To maintain a girlish (or boyish) figure
83. To frighten the demons away
84. To lure in good spirits
85. To show gratitude for health and well being
86. To experience health and well being
87. To mourn and to grieve
88. To pretend to be someone else
89. To enjoy solitude
90. To focus attention
91. To socialize
92. To awaken creativity
93. To remember that as humans we are mortal
94. To gain strength and build cardiovascular endurence
95. For something to do, for entertainment
96. To enjoy sex without doing the thing
97. To intimidate the other team
98. To make play of work
99. To mourn and to grieve
and then…
- To remember dreams
- To play with the Muses.
- To explore symbols in dreams
- To celebrate a wedding
- To soothe a fussy baby
- To humiliate your teenage children
- To make it rain
- To stretch stiff muscles and joints
- To warm up an audience before a public speaking engagement
- To enliven a Powerpoint presentation
- To build team spirit
- To build muscle
- To rate a song on American Bandstand
- To tell a secret and keep it, too
Did I miss any? I’m certain that I did. Please help add to the list with your comments.
Liberation Movement 
today my reason to dance is #42…because I can’t help myself from dancing!
Me too. It seems like when I don’t dance, the dance comes out in some other way, anyway. Foot tapping, nail biting, hair twirling, heart beating, breathing… All those repetitive, expressive movements to me feel like expressions of dance, at least when I pay attention to them.
Thanks for reading and for the comment, Joanna.
To remember what I love the most
Yes! Let us remember all that we love with dance! (and that includes dance itself!)
As Donovan said: “Music Is….”
Many say: “Dancing Is…”
Dance to your Heart’s Delight…………..