Dancing is STILL the Devil's Work?

[Marlow]

from home-page-linked article

While thousands of fans worldwide cannot get enough of Olympic 2008 Gold medalist Asafa Powell's recent displays of the 'Nuh Linga' and 'Gully Creeper' dance moves, his two biggest fans, his parents, are not pleased with dancing at all. Rev. William Powell and his wife, Cislyn, are "not happy" about Asafa's recent indulgence in dancehall moves and are praying that the sprint sensation stops doing them.

a. I have never seen him dance. Is this a post-race activity? He seems like the most unemotive, least carefree spirit out there. Is he really just a boogie monster?
b. Is this 'belief' (no dancing) still a hapnin thing around the world? I thought the movie Footloose had killed it.
c. Is dance not an artform - the free expression of inner joy?

I have never known anyone 'not allowed' to dance (not to be confused with the fact that I CAN'T dance).

[SQUACKEE]

Re: Dancing is STILL the Devil's Work?

[quote="Marlow"].
c. Is dance not an artform - the free expression of inner joy?
quote]

It can be, unfortunatley many sex crazed youth have turned the joy and art of movement into nothin more than a dirty display of deranged and dastardly dry humping. A close encounter of the sex mind.

[gh]

Re: Dancing is STILL the Devil's Work?

f....
I have never known anyone 'not allowed' to dance (not to be confused with the fact that I CAN'T dance).

A product of your sheltered life.

Conservative Baptists, for example, say no dancing (religionfacts.com):

<<Many conservative Baptists oppose gambling, alcohol, tobacco, and some prohibit dancing and movies. Especially in areas where Southern Baptists form a majority of the population, the denomination has been successful in imposing its values on the general population – "dry counties" in the South or the ban on music and dancing in the film Footloose) are examples.>>

Or the Seventh Day Adventists (wiki):

<<Though it seems unbelievable to some, I’m thankful that when I grew up in the church [in the 1950s and 1960s] I was taught not to go to the movie theater, dance, listen to popular music, read novels, wear jewelry, play cards, bowl, play pool, or even be fascinated by professional sports.
– James R. Nix, Growing Up Adventist: No apologies needed[29]>>

Or Islam (from themodernreligion.com):

<<TI'll quickly admit the modern dance has plenty of allure. Everything possible is done to make it attractive. The lights are low, the music is soft. The theme is romantic, the girls are beautifully gowed and the whole scene is almost irresistible. More than that, just about everybody seems to dance and very few condemn it. Is there any real harm? Is it wrong for a Muslim to participate?

May I be frank with you? Can there be any reasonable doubt that the modern ball room dance is built almost wholly on sex attraction? Those who dance assume positions in relation to each other that certainly would not be tolerated in any other place. The essence of good dancing is said to be the yielding of as much of the girl's body to her partner's close embrace as he desires.

Dancing is sex pure and simple, and impure sex.>>

[lonewolf]

gh, beat me to it. I grew during the Depression in Bible Belt country. The local Baptist preacher dominated the school board. The school superintendent was one of his parishoners. All forms of dancing were prohibited. We had senior banquets instead of senior proms. Alcohol was in general disrepute but still abused. Some families forbade their children to attend movie. Smokers were probably in the majority.

[Mighty Favog]

Toledo is not Bible Belt country, but like everywhere else we've got a small and dedicated group of very conservative Christians who, among other things, run a K-12 school (enrollment +/- 800) highly similar to the one in the film Saved. The high schoolers have a spring formal dinner rather than a prom due to their no-dancing rules. Kids from other local high schools find it the most ridiculous thing they've ever heard.

[Marlow]

Re: Dancing is STILL the Devil's Work?

A product of your sheltered life.

Yeah those 20 years trotting the globe for Uncle Sam - dealing with people form EVERY walk of life - didn't get me out much . . .

Conservative Baptists, for example, say no dancing

Jax is crawling with conservative Baptists, and guess what, they dance.

Or the Seventh Day Adventists
Or Islam

Ya got me there - They are not in my inner circle of acquaintances.

May I be frank with you?

Dang, I wanted to lead!!

[paulthefan]

I seem to recall a general code for high school dances even in public schools, of propriety and civil conduct. Most principals, if they saw a dancing couple in too tight a grip(grope) he would absolutely intervene an tell the lad to go get a drink of water. I am talking about northern public schools. There was a general sense that teenagers were not to be allowed to behave like dogs and cats back then and it didnt take a Baptist preacher to figure that one out.

[bambam]

I seem to recall a general code for high school dances even in public schools, of propriety and civil conduct. Most principals, if they saw a dancing couple in too tight a grip(grope) he would absolutely intervene an tell the lad to go get a drink of water. I am talking about northern public schools. There was a general sense that teenagers were not to be allowed to behave like dogs and cats back then and it didnt take a Baptist preacher to figure that one out.

I started at Duke in 1969 and dukehjsteve can probably confirm this. We were told as freshmen that they had just changed the rules about men and women being in a dorm room together. The rule had been that if a man and women were in a dorm room together by themselves, the door had to be open at all times, and three legs had to be in contact with the floor at all times. This was supposedly actually written in the college bye-laws or so we were told. dukehjsteve??

[lonewolf]

I entered college in 1949. I never did see the rules in writing and maybe it was urban myth but all the girlsl swore that the Dean of Women admonished young women to carry a Life magazine on dates in the event they might have to sit on their dates laps in a crowded car.
Also patent leather shoes were verboten because they might reflect the wearers underwear.
There were no coed dorms and men were not allowed about the ground floor at any time, night or day, not matter how many feet were on the floor.
But dancing was permitted.

[tandfman]

Do you suppose there's any similarity at all between the dancing that was done at your college in 1949 and what Asafa Powell's parents were objecting to?

[Marlow]

I started at Duke in 1969 and dukehjsteve can probably confirm this. We were told as freshmen that they had just changed the rules about men and women being in a dorm room together.

What a difference a coast makes. I started Stanford in 1969 and we (not me, but some) had coed dorm rooms!!!

[gh]

I entered college in 1949. I never did see the rules in writing and maybe it was urban myth but all the girlsl swore that the Dean of Women admonished young women to carry a Life magazine on dates in the event they might have to sit on their dates laps in a crowded car.....

When I was a frosh at Washington State in '65, in my girlfriend's dorm (can't speak for all dorms) women weren't allowed to sit on your lap in the dorm without a newspaper, so your remembrance may well not be myth at all.

[tandfman]

I started at Duke in 1969 and dukehjsteve can probably confirm this. We were told as freshmen that they had just changed the rules about men and women being in a dorm room together.

What a difference a coast makes. I started Stanford in 1969 and we (not me, but some) had coed dorm rooms!!!

I know there were colleges in the East that had coed dorms by 1969, but coed dorm rooms? Really? Wow!

Edited to fix typo

[SQUACKEE]

I started at Duke in 1969 and dukehjsteve can probably confirm this. We were told as freshmen that they had just changed the rules about men and women being in a dorm room together.

What a difference a coast makes. I started Stanford in 1969 and we (not me, but some) had coed dorm rooms!!!

I assume you also had coed bathrooms and showers, i mean why not? What could possibly happen? 8-)

[Marlow]

I assume you also had coed bathrooms and showers, i mean why not? What could possibly happen? 8-)

Let's just say the intent was to have same-sex showers, but that's not how it always worked out. Coming from where I did, there was much I had to learn on the fly, as it were. :shock: