5 ms·

Dancing is just a game we play, like everything else we do. Once you see it like that it all makes sense

by AstixAndBelix 4y ago

grafelic 4y ago
So when I'm dancing alone, which I do occasionally, I play a game? What game is that?
- bornfreddy 4y ago
  Solitaire. ;-)
- BulgarianIdiot 4y ago
  Games are not always group activity. The game is alignment & synchronization. Animals also dance. Parrots are quite good at it.
- is_true 4y ago
  Solitaire 3D
- VoodooJuJu 4y ago
  Dancing
nordsieck 4y ago
> Dancing is just a game we play, like everything else we do. Once you see it like that it all makes sense IMO, this is just not true. There is something really special about synchronized action with other people. Be it marching, singing, chanting, etc. It engenders trust, builds community, and generally builds relationships in a way that I don't think anything else does. This isn't a strictly good thing either - my observation is that dancer relationships tend to be... unstable. And partner dance is one of the most developed and interesting method of synchronized action that people have created[1]. It's fundamentally a different sort of activity to listening to poetry, playing basketball, attending a lecture, or writing a CRUD app. --- 1. Orchestra/band rivals dance here - certainly there is opportunity for much greater scale at high levels of complexity. Of course, you have to give up touch to get that.
- sublinear 4y ago
  > It's fundamentally a different sort of activity to listening to poetry, playing basketball, attending a lecture, or writing a CRUD app. I disagree. Team sports (playing basketball) are just as much about choreography and also the connection between dance and all other activities you mentioned. The feeling of being part of a "well-oiled machine" is the sense that the choreography is successful. This feels good because most of the time a group of people wouldn't care for doing what you expect. It's affirmation.
  - nordsieck 4y ago
    > I disagree. Team sports (playing basketball) are just as much about choreography and also the connection between dance and all other activities you mentioned. The feeling of being part of a "well-oiled machine" is the sense that the choreography is successful. This feels good because most of the time a group of people wouldn't care for doing what you expect. It's affirmation. I've done team sports and all I can say is: it's not the same[1]. When I'm on a team, we're all trying to achieve the same goal, but we aren't one body. There's no sense that everyone is acting as a single being. Beyond that, I guess, I can't really give much of a logical argument - it's just something that I've experienced. And others may disagree, which is fine too. My own personal theory is that there is no innate way the body can tell what is self and what is other. And synchronized movement is a sort of hack that tricks people into partially accepting other people as self. But that's just a wild theory I have and has no real backing that I know of. --- 1. I suspect that high level military drill probably would engender the same feelings, but I suspect that that's not what you meant when you mentioned "team sports".
- forgotpwd16 4y ago
  >It engenders trust, builds community, and generally builds relationships But that's what competitive games also do. You cannot play basketball without trusting, collaborating, communicating with your teammates. Those are the pillars of teamwork. Also synchronicity is core to them, so much that researchers have taken noticed (https://www.popsci.com/nba-basketball-synchronous-movements-neuroscience/ https://www.popsci.com/nba-basketball-synchronous-movements-...).
tgv 4y ago
Huizinga [1], I'm sure. Literary bollocks. It's a contrived intellectual effort, whose only goal can be to impress. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens

Dancing is just a game we play, like everything else we do. Once you see it like that it all makes sense

grafelic 4y ago

So when I'm dancing alone, which I do occasionally, I play a game? What game is that?

bornfreddy 4y ago
Solitaire. ;-)
BulgarianIdiot 4y ago
Games are not always group activity. The game is alignment & synchronization. Animals also dance. Parrots are quite good at it.
is_true 4y ago
Solitaire 3D
VoodooJuJu 4y ago
Dancing

nordsieck 4y ago

> Dancing is just a game we play, like everything else we do. Once you see it like that it all makes sense IMO, this is just not true. There is something really special about synchronized action with other people. Be it marching, singing, chanting, etc. It engenders trust, builds community, and generally builds relationships in a way that I don't think anything else does. This isn't a strictly good thing either - my observation is that dancer relationships tend to be... unstable. And partner dance is one of the most developed and interesting method of synchronized action that people have created[1]. It's fundamentally a different sort of activity to listening to poetry, playing basketball, attending a lecture, or writing a CRUD app. --- 1. Orchestra/band rivals dance here - certainly there is opportunity for much greater scale at high levels of complexity. Of course, you have to give up touch to get that.

sublinear 4y ago
> It's fundamentally a different sort of activity to listening to poetry, playing basketball, attending a lecture, or writing a CRUD app. I disagree. Team sports (playing basketball) are just as much about choreography and also the connection between dance and all other activities you mentioned. The feeling of being part of a "well-oiled machine" is the sense that the choreography is successful. This feels good because most of the time a group of people wouldn't care for doing what you expect. It's affirmation.
- nordsieck 4y ago
  > I disagree. Team sports (playing basketball) are just as much about choreography and also the connection between dance and all other activities you mentioned. The feeling of being part of a "well-oiled machine" is the sense that the choreography is successful. This feels good because most of the time a group of people wouldn't care for doing what you expect. It's affirmation. I've done team sports and all I can say is: it's not the same[1]. When I'm on a team, we're all trying to achieve the same goal, but we aren't one body. There's no sense that everyone is acting as a single being. Beyond that, I guess, I can't really give much of a logical argument - it's just something that I've experienced. And others may disagree, which is fine too. My own personal theory is that there is no innate way the body can tell what is self and what is other. And synchronized movement is a sort of hack that tricks people into partially accepting other people as self. But that's just a wild theory I have and has no real backing that I know of. --- 1. I suspect that high level military drill probably would engender the same feelings, but I suspect that that's not what you meant when you mentioned "team sports".
forgotpwd16 4y ago
>It engenders trust, builds community, and generally builds relationships But that's what competitive games also do. You cannot play basketball without trusting, collaborating, communicating with your teammates. Those are the pillars of teamwork. Also synchronicity is core to them, so much that researchers have taken noticed (https://www.popsci.com/nba-basketball-synchronous-movements-neuroscience/ https://www.popsci.com/nba-basketball-synchronous-movements-...).

tgv 4y ago

Huizinga [1], I'm sure. Literary bollocks. It's a contrived intellectual effort, whose only goal can be to impress. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens