“I can’t dance”

I could not tell you how many people throughout my life have said the words to me “I can’t dance”. It very often is the first thing people say to me in response to telling them that I have a career in dance. However, my response is and always will be that it is my whole hearted belief that EVERYONE can dance.

Bobbing your head in the car to a catchy song is dancing. Tapping your foot is dancing. Even jumping around in your kitchen while you’re cleaning and listening to your favorite songs is dancing. Twerking at the club is dancing! Everyone has the capacity to dance, it is truly part of being a human.

I know and have spoken to many adults who are afraid to take a dance class because they think they are too late to “learn” to dance, when really they have been dancing their whole life without even knowing it. Sure, it may not have been official training and technique but chances are they are more prepared than they think! We all have the tools inside of us already to learn to dance. We all are born with the capacity to recognize rhythm and patterns and are able to move in time with it.

And so whenever I hear someone utter the phrase “I can’t dance” I try to offer an alternative as it is simply a matter of linguistics. Instead of that they “can’t” dance it is that they don’t think they are good at dancing. We all are born with the ability to dance. Just like we have the ability to walk, we have the ability to dance. No even more, those that cannot walk due to disability still often can dance in some form! And so this phrasing can be crucial as I believe if you want to say you “can dance” then you simply want to be better at dancing. To “get better” often requires some type of practice or training to learn how to move more in time with music and to learn some steps that you can then showcase the next time you hear a song that makes you want to dance. But, to believe that you can’t dance is to believe you are not human; which I hate to say, but is simply impossible.