by Ross Voorhees

Created on: February 20, 2009

One of Saturday Night Live's recent, most popular video clips is "The First Person Ever in History to Dance", which features a caveman that begins shuffling his feet to a modern day House beat, and culminates with a full-out Rave frenzy, complete with glowsticks. Why do people all over the world love this bit? It's because Dance and dancing is a constant that everyone can relate to and everyone can understand.

The Evolution of Dance is one of the most popular videos ever on Youtube with over 110 million views. Why? It's not just because it's funny, but WHY it's funny. Dance reaches the deepest levels of our psyche, our heritage, and perhaps even our DNA.

Dancing has been, and always will be, a part of our cultural heritage as human beings, whether a member of a remote Amazon tribe or President of the United States (although obviously some Presidents are better than others). From the earliest records of human history to today's cinema, dance often plays a central role, even when we don't realize it. The Bible tells us to dance and celebrate. The dance scene in Napolean Dynamite is the climax of the movie, and his display of dancing prowess unites the entire school in thunderous appreciation.

In other words, regardless of race, culture, nationality, or sex, dancing is relatable across the divisions that seperate us. We can travel to any part of the world, even areas that seem completely alien and strange, but the moment we see those people dance, we recognize it. We don't have to understand the language, the people, the culture, the background, or even the reason for their dance in order to appreciate and enjoy it, and in many cases, even partake in it, and that fact alone brings us all closer together by reminding us of our common bonds as human beings.

Dancing also serves to bring people together within individual societies because it is often a background for social events. From a school dance to a ceremonial right of passage within a tribe, a societal dance brings the individuals within that community together in a shared experience that exceeds generational boundaries. Parents can relate to their children's experiences, and vice versa, because regardless of the music or differences from generation to generation, those dances are often what is most remembered and even cherished as key moments in our lives.

The reasons to dance are many. We dance to celebrate, we dance to display our masculinity, femininity, our strength, our grace, our joy, our sadness, our hopes, our dreams. Dancing brings us all together because it is inherently within our nature, and part of what makes us uniquely human.

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