Dancing has many styles and many opinions based on it. At one point, it was believed a sin for a Christian to dance.

I curious as to why that woud be, as a lot of old dances are spend with more time apart then together.

Also, if you wrote a story with dancing in it, how would you handle it? How would you describe it?

Good question. I think part of the issue was that they did spend some time together. Two unmarried people of the opposite gender touching? How shocking! Otherwise, I'm not really sure.

I have a square dance in my book A Mighty Fortress, but I don't actually describe the dance itself. Here is how I did it:

Yeah, that would be a viable reason for most people back then. They would be horrified at the dances we have today!

Although, a lot of the people who were against dancing were religious, and doesn't the Bible somewhere say to 'dance before the Lord'? Although, they were the same people who almost outlawed singing and any form of gaiety in the church too, so...

You did a good job describing the scene! I love folk dancing in general, and recently I actually got to go to a square dancing event, which kind of brought this whole thing on...Not that I didn't dance! I loved it.

I'm horrified at some of the dances we have today.



The problem is that legalists like that tend to take things out of context or ignore parts of the Bible like what you quoted. There are sensual dances that a Christian should not do, I believe, but I don't think that dancing, in and of itself, is sinful.



Thank you. I love folk dancing, too. A family in our area organizes a folk dance every few months and I absolutely love it!

*sighs in longing* We attended a homeschool convention, and they had dancing the first night. Normally we can't afford it, or we just can't go. Unfortunately. I love it.

Move here. The folk dancing they host is just on a donation basis. If you can, you can donate some money to help offset their costs.

That sounds wonderful!

Perhaps in a few years...Unfortunately.

Is there any dancing in your book? (just to try to get this back on topic. )

As for dancing, do you have a favorite song that you think would work well to dance to?

Is there dancing in my book? Definitely. I have a few races that will most certainly dance. That, and it's set in kind of a previous time, so dancing's almost obligatory.

Do I have a favorite song?! Anything Irish/Celtic/Scottish/folk songs... It would depend on which holiday, and which race. I really haven't thought out everything in the culture yet.

Ooo! I like the sound of this book. Is this part of your WWII book or a different one?

Those songs sound like they would be fun to dance to.

Well, thank you! I hope it'll be interesting. No, it's actually a fantasy book-but I tend to mix my fantasy with bits of history (in terms of cultures and machines and buildings) and mythology, so I come here for information a lot. Although, there will probably be dancing in the WWII book as well, that's just normal.

They are-immensely. Or, at least I think so...

You're welcome. A lot of people seem to do that. Jaye L. Knight has her Fantasy book in a setting similar to when the Romans had gladiator fights and I know a lot of fantasy books have an almost Medieval setting. I would be interested to know how you handle the dancing in both your books.

Yeah, probably since 'fantasy' is automatically attributed to medieval times and ancient history. Usually the more romanticized parts.

I'm interested to see how I handle it too! It should be interesting...Frustrating, but interesting.

I haven't put any dancing into my books yet, but I would do Civil War era dancing because that's what I love best. Having taken ballet for six years, I'm very particular about what qualifies as dance (rocking back and forth doesn't). But I don't like hip hop. I've toyed around with the idea of writing a story about a ballerina, so that would be dance.

I say that dancing is a joyous and beautiful artistic way for people to glorify God and express themselves. As for the idea that dancing as a whole is a sin, that is very unscriptural, I think, and is more of a culture imposing its views on Scriptures.

If my understanding of the cultural context is correct, the original hearers of the Scripture passages commending dancing would, to the best of our knowledge, have understood it as talking about dancing men with men and women with women, or simply by oneself, not anything like what later developed in Western Europe (and then America). And when the Puritans prohibited dancing, among other behaviors, it's important to understand that they were reacting to a culture that used holidays and might well have used those Scripture passages as excuses to not exercise self-control.

Here in southeast Michigan, there's an opportunity for some sort of folk dancing (contra, English country, Scottish country, etc.) most nights of most weeks, I understand. I grew up oblivious to this, with the "Friday night dance" at the music festival in Evart we went to being my one opportunity each year for square/contra dancing or anything like that and thus "the highlight of my summer," but the last few years I've been going to a Scottish country dance group nearly every week, and (now that I'm past the constant-frustration phase of learning) that's become my favorite.

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post about dancing in the world of my Shine Cycle. To summarize briefly: Human beings in that world came there from various places in our world (basically like the Telmarines in the Narnia books, only on a wider scale), so things are a bit of a cultural mish-mash. "Couple dancing," except for waltzes, is not widely popular; "set dancing," like Scottish or English country dancing or (the American tradition derived therefrom) square and contra dancing, is widespread and popular, in multiple similar but incompatible traditions. Which helps to make music a viable (if not lucrative) career for more people than in our world's present day and age.

I make up dances, of the fast, orchestrator kind. They somewhat follow the idea of the animations some movie player programs have when they are just playing audio.
but I have a hard time describing dances.

I have a culture where they dance men and women together, but as in dancing in a pair, rather than embracing each other. There would be sub cultures and time periods when they would be less conscientious and touch each other more, and more sexually, but otherwise there would only be catching each other's hands, linking arms, or jumping over each other.
There would also be more brother/sister, man/wife, father/daughter, son/mother pairings. Uncle/niece would actually be one of the most common pairings in most sub-cultures and time periods.

My personal conviction on dancing will definitely influence the way I incorporate dancing into my stories, if I ever do. The dancing we see today, as I'm sure many of you will agree with me, is awful. Just plain awful. The type of dance I find so lovely and beautiful is the dances you see in Jane Austen's time. Gah! It's just lovely! Those will probably be the types of dances I would choose to use. How I'll describe them...totally not sure!

It's worth noting that "the dances you see in Jane Austen's time" are still danced today---not monthly in every Assembly hall, but around the world by probably millions of people. If you search for "English country dancing" you'll find any number of resources. Personally, I prefer Scottish country dancing, which is slightly more complicated.

(For years I said, to anyone who would listen when the subject came up, that my idea of "real" dancing was "what was danced when George Washington was president"---but now that I've had the opportunity to dance quadrilles, the dance form I had in mind, I'm inclined to think them boring compared to Scottish or even English country dancing. One of the Scottish country dancers I know has said in my hearing on a couple of occasions that what became modern contra dancing began as what the dancers would do in the evening after the end of the "official" dance program of such boring forms as quadrilles. )

I think "dancing" as perceived by the world today is ravenously different than what "dancing" in its purest, or truest state, truly is. I personally am a contracted ballet dancer, and have studied in most all ballroom/modern/classical/neoclassical/lyrical/rhythmic styles of dance. My experience has led me to think of dance somewhat as a music of the body; it's artistic expression. This is seen often in The Bible when people "rejoice."
Like in "Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance..." -Jeremiah 31:13
"Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!" Psalm 149:3
Psalm 30:11- "You have turned for me my mourning into dancing"
(All ESV)

Indeed. When I've seen Scottish country dancing done very well, I've often thought that it looks like "poetry in motion." (One of the things about Scottish country dancing that makes me specify it in particular is that it is traditionally not "called," so there's ideally no sound other than the music and the dancers' steps.)

There's dancing in its purest form---a kinesthetic expression of overflowing joy---and then there's dancing as formalized in almost every culture I've ever heard of for the last two thousand years and more

And this thing stopped notifying me about posts...!!

The 'dances' of today are about as close to dances as many 'based on the book' movies - in other words, not very. *grins*

So there are Scottish dances, Irish dances, English dances, Italian dances, contra dances - what is the difference? Is it just more favorite patterns to specific areas?

Most of them are folk dances that evolved in various regions of the world in coordination with their folk music and instruments.

I don't know any of the specific differences between them, unfortunately.

As Varon said, folk dancing developed along with (influencing and being influenced by) folk music and other art forms.

Square dancing, contra dancing, English country dancing, and Scottish country dancing are all "social dance" forms that have their roots in the "country dance" tradition of the 17th and earlier centuries. Square and contra dancing developed in America fairly organically (square dancing as a highly simplified version for rural life, I think). English and Scottish country dancing are modern quasi-codified forms developed in the 19th (I think) and 20th centuries respectively by collecting traditional dances (writing down how they are danced---in the case of Scottish country dancing, using many French terms derived from ballet) and writing new ones. And all of these have, at least in the last century or so, influenced each others' development.

And then there are Highland dancing, Irish set dancing, and some others, which are "performance" or "competition" dances, and of which I have essentially no knowledge. Nor do I know much of anything about dance traditions beyond what I have sometimes heard called "Anglo-American."

Wow.

So Square and Contra are the same - except Square is much more simplified? No wonder I thought they were similar...

Thank you so much!!

Sort of. Strictly speaking, "square" dancing involves square sets, and "contra" either round or long-ways sets in which couples move along the set in opposite directions and repeat the dance with a new couple each time through, and so they're at least sort of two varieties of the same kind of dancing. But in another sense, "square dancing" involves mostly square-set dancing but also some very simple contra-style dances (such as the Virginia Reel), and "contra dancing" is a parallel strand of development that was (and is) much more willing to accept new and complicated figures---essentially, rural and urban traditions respectively, because in the country at a dance everyone usually needs to know the figures already for there to be enough people to dance, and people tend to want to dance only with people they know, while cities tend to be hotbeds of innovation in the arts generally.

Ahhh.... okay. That makes sense.

So contra is more flexible and willing to change and adapt?

Essentially. I would say that "contra" is the name that the dancers and callers who like to push the boundaries like to call what they do, and "square dancing" is what those who want to preserve (and enjoy) the tradition with little modification call what they do, but that's essentially the same thing