My Inner Dancer

I am not a dancer. I have never been and I'm not sure if  I  ever will be. Just a little clarification for our non Finnish readers: Finns love  to dance. And this passion for dancing has grown to the national peculiarities which have profoundly influenced in my relationship with dancing. Let me explain:

The Finnish folk dance. The pride and joy of all primary school spring performances. There are very precise national styles around the country, steps, choreographies and THE right way to do it. The Finnish folk dance tradition has inspired many school teachers to aim for the same perfection in their school plays. However - what did it mean  to me when chosen to do a Christmas Cookie Dance turning around and around on the spot wearing a big brown cardboard circle on my tummy instead of  floating like a Snowflake in  lace tutus.How I envied those snowflakes.

Saturday evening's dance; the national gathering together in early 70's, the first reality TV  show in Finland  hosted by the national star Heikki Hietamies. Everybody after or before Saturday's sauna sat on their bums to watch other people dancing on the telly. Yes, you read it right. On the telly. More than two million people for 15 years spent every Saturday evening watching other people dancing. (It is a massive amount of people in a country whose  total  population is about 5 million.) They say that even cows' milking times were altered because farmers' wives wanted to see this programme. To produce this programme in a truly Finnish way the educational section was included as well. The dance maestro Åke Blomqist taught the steps for the different dances so that the nation learned them THE right way. This video about how to dance  Disco Dance is a classic. So- it is in my nuclear thinking that my role is to admire how other people dance correctly.

Dancing restaurants and lavatanssit are two peculiarities which are a bit difficult to explain to  other nationalities. Dancing restaurant is the restaurant where you go not to eat but to dance. Some of them  might  be regular restaurants in the daytime or early evening and some are purely open just for late night dances. Lavatanssit is the same thing but usually in a  purpose built dancing pavilion either in a town or in the country side. The most popular of them are still those in the countryside and by the river. I believe that the origin to "lavatanssit" is from the agricultural period  when farmers and their families gathered to together  to celebrate the mid summer Sun and to have fun together. Both the traditions e.g.dancing restaurants and lavatanssit still exists and they flourished when I was a teenager.  A teenager who was afraid of two things  which might or might not might occur when you go to dancing places:  a) will anybody come to ask me to dance (yes this is still the tradition!) and b) if so, can I dance this particular dance! What  stress. I am sure that its is not a surprise for anybody reading this far that  visiting dancing restaurants or lavatanssit weren't my favourite hobbies. And I didn't learn to dance as I didn't get the practise.

Finns love Finnish Tango. Not Argentinian or other Latin tradition but their very own Finnish version of tango. They have even a festival for a Finnish Tango, Tangomarkkinat. Which I have never visited. But watch on the telly! Hours and hours of it. Hours and hours were also spent in  high school  to learn vanhojen päivät tanssit The Eldest Dance. Again a peculiar Finnish tradition when young people dance formal dances in a formal way wearing nowadays very formal and expensive costumes. It is a bit like a Prom but for those students who become the eldest at the high school when the last class leaves the school to prepare themselves for matriculation tests. I did  "vanhojen tanssit" as everybody has to do and it was a stress. But also kind of important and fun.

So I have a dilemma:  I am not a dancer but I believe that there is a little dancer inside me. I have seen hours and hours of dancing in my lifetime (on the telly, remember) but have a very little experience of dancing myself. I feel very safe in this county where the bride and groom's first dance is not a waltz like in Finland but a freesyle disco dance. I enjoy seeing funny  Morris dances in the streets and school assemblies where everybody joins together to dance in their own style. Only  Stricly Come Dancing  gives me a little reminder of the past: I am again watching other people dancing on the telly!

I like Zumba -in the English style. The zumba instructor in my gym doesn't bother to give verbal instruction, to name the steps or rehearse the dances.He just points in the air the directions and how many times to do what ever. I am learning by doing and enjoying. Everybody is just smiling and having fun. No pressure no corrections just a great example and a great atmosphere.  Wake y, wake y my inner dancer.