Do you dance?

[Jumpinbare]

I didn't dance again until senior prom.

I knew prom involved dressing up and dancing. I wouldn't have gone even if I had a girl to go with.

 

[Greening]

One charming, crazy man did something to me and I started dancing this last month pretty often. It's so not like me, yet maybe I didn't even know myself like that before I met him.

Thank you, love. We are going to dance so much! I love you.

 

[Tired]

Thank you, love. We are going to dance so much! I love you. View attachment 126755

Damn this heart is enormous, just like my love for you! We'll be dancing, yes, in the forests, and under the moon and on the clouds. Kiss.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

What about dancing alone, when no one watches? Just switching on the music which makes you do that and giving it a try, maybe it can make you laugh, feel embarrassed or just enjoy those rare moments.

Not a thing. Never happened. Alexithymia pretty much dampens any feelings associated with music. I don't internalize music that way, that is, at an emotional level. I can sometimes appreciate the beat and rhythm of the music, sometimes the lyrics, but even when I was young and at school dances, I was simply trying to imitate my peers because I wanted to be seen as involved and not different. It wasn't like I was actually immersed in the music and had this natural urge to dance. Now, having said that, TV program The Voice is one my wife and I look forward to. We can appreciate the talent. I cannot sing myself (I am pretty much monotone), but I do have a keen ear for pitch, head voice vs. chest voice, vibrato characteristics, and so on.

 

[Au Naturel]

I knew prom involved dressing up and dancing. I wouldn't have gone even if I had a girl to go with.

I managed it because I knew a sophomore girl who had not been asked out, and she really wanted to go. (I'd never have gotten a junior or senior girl to go with me. I was too low status. She did not know me well.) Once I forced myself to get over my resistance to dancing, it was okay. I did what I considered very minimalist dancing and watched her much more expressive dancing. We spent some time together, and she spent time flitting around with all her girlfriends while I sat at the "bar" and sipped apple juice.

Just watching her made me happy, even if I wasn't fully participating. So did watching the other couples dancing. I think I have a strong ability to enjoy things vicariously. The tux was an unfortunate necessity.

We dated for a couple of months, then broke up that summer. It was a friendly breakup. I knew I wasn't her dream, by any means. I was the silent partner and she was the active one. Yeah, it meant putting my own special interests on the back burner. So what?

 

[Au Naturel]

What about dancing alone, when no one watches? Just switching on the music which makes you do that and giving it a try, maybe it can make you laugh, feel embarrassed or just enjoy those rare moments.

I never learned any formal steps. What I knew about dancing was what I saw on American Bandstand. (That really dates me.) I'd turn on the radio and just kind of move to the music. Really bad experience when I was young, so dancing didn't come naturally. Had strength, balance, and flexibility but no rhythm or coordination. That's pretty common in autistic people.

I took a modern dance class in college. I was a total fish out of water. Got a lot of side-eye from the girls in the class. But it helped me later in life.

I watch my 2-year-old granddaughter dance, and she is better than me.

 

[Tired]

My most traumatizing event in my young life was in 5th grade when my school decided that we would learn square dancing for one quarter year and have a public performance at the end. Participation was mandatory.
I have always been very touch averse and square dancing meant holding hands with multiple people, doing intricate movements accompanied by loud music, someone talking over the music, and all the visual chaos of seeing the movement of all the other dancers.
I had to dissociate to function at all, and my teacher verbally critcised me for "moving like a robot". As the public performance approached, the dread of an impending audience was overwhelming.
A day or two before the performance, I came down with a severe flu. There was nothing going around at the time. I was an isolated case according to the family doctor. My teacher "had to" come see me to make sure I was actually sick and wasn't trying to duck out of dancing. I was just thankful for the miracle that got me out of it. The only time I was ever glad to be ill.

I know that people can get physically ill from a lot of stress. Maybe that's what happened to you. Glad to see that it seems it ended well for you, but that teacher needs someone to remind her of her place, she had no right to talk like that to you and behave like that too. Wow, what a person.