Dancing...and Ultrarunning

Maybe an analogy to Ultrarunning...a compulsion to do something apparently silly, at best?  My money's on mass hysteria.  The reading I've done on it convinces me that it can be a very underestimated and powerful phenomenon.

From the Writer's Almanac (24 June 2011):

An outbreak of dancing plague, also known as St. Vitus' Dance or epidemic chorea, began on this day in 1374 in Aachen, Germany. From Aachen it spread across central Europe and as far away as England and Madagascar. Dancing mania affected groups of people -- as many as thousands at a time -- and caused them to dance uncontrollably for days, weeks, and even months until they collapsed from exhaustion. Some danced themselves to death, suffering heart attacks or broken hips and ribs. Most outbreaks happened between the 14th and 17th centuries, though there are reports of dancing mania as far back as the 7th century. The 1374 outbreak was well-documented by several credible witnesses who reported that dancers sang, screamed, saw visions, behaved like animals, and experienced aversions to the color red and to pointy-toed shoes.

At the time, people believed the plague was the result of a curse from St. Vitus or St. John the Baptist, and so they prayed to the saints and made pilgrimages to their shrines. Exorcism was another treatment option, as was isolation, and many communities hired musicians to accompany the dancers in the hope that it would help them overcome their compulsion; it usually just resulted in more people joining the dancing. Scientists today are still at a loss to explain it, putting it down to economic hardship, ergot poisoning, cults, or mass hysteria.

Oh, and I totally agree on the part about having an aversion to pointy-toed shoes.  They tend to catch rocks and roots, you know.

 

Come Dancing...as Ultra Training?

Mister Tristan got a souped-up looking tractor for Christmas, made in China, the tell being the label on the battery cover that says "Remove to access muet [sic] switch." It's approx 10" high and 12" long, has buttons on top that make it go in forward or reverse, and it plays tractor noises and music.

One of the tunes is the Chicken Dance--it's a barnyard theme, I guess--and I remarked to my daughter-in-law that I had gone 57 years and never danced the Chicken Dance. This despite numerous opportunities to do so at weddings, etc.

She said, "You're kidding. You've never done the Chicken Dance? It's fun!"

I replied, "God willing, I fully expect to pass the rest of my natural life and keep my record intact. That dance is an abomination."

I'm not anti-dancing in general, it's just not a priority with me, and I draw the line at any type of mass hysteria dances, such as this one or the Electric Slide. I have in fact taken dancing lessons (disco back in the 70s and ballroom dancing more recently), because my wife loves to dance and we do enjoy dancing together when we get a chance.

Once we were out somewhere where a lively band was playing, and at practically the first notes she was bouncing in her seat, itching to get up and dance, and said, "How can you just sit there???  Doesn't the music make you move?"

I replied--because I always need a couple tunes to get in the mood before going onto the floor--"I'm dancing right here in my head."

All that said, dancing does add to our lives. I do agree with William James (1842-1910) when he said, "Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing." 

One certainly can't argue against common sense or a sense of humor, and if dancing provides a bridge between the two, then I'm there.  Time to dance, I guess...it'll be good ultra training.  Cue up the Kinks: