Dancing is fun. Unfortunately, however, many persons miss out on this fun because
they do not dance well. Girls are apprehensive that they will not be able to follow
their partners. Men are worried about stepping on their partner's toes.
Many persons are reluctant to try to learn to dance, because they believe they do
not have a sense of rhythm.
This is regrettable, for all of us have a sense of rhythm. Rhythm is one of the
governing laws that makes for order in the universe. Rhythm appears in many phases.
The competent typist has rhythm; the public speaker, the musician, the author all
make use of rhythm in the practice of their arts.
Even the engine in our automobile has rhythmit must fire in perfect time to operate
successfully.
While it is true that some people find it difficult to express their innate sense
of rhythm, this is due largely to some form of inhibition. Primitive man, completely
uninhibited, found it easy to stomp his feet to the beat of a tom-tom, giving
expression to his sense of rhythm.
We do not dance in such an abandoned manner because we feel ridiculous to let
ourselves go so completely. Our desire to express rhythm is tempered by our feeling
that we do not know how to dance as well as others.
Even after learning a few of the simpler steps, some people are still afraid to relax
and keep time to the accompanying music because they fear they will make a mistake and
be ridiculed. This fear of criticism and ridicule can be so overpowering as to cause
certain persons to become immobile. If the desire to dance is thwarted often enough,
a psychological block can be set up in the nervous system which leads to discouragement
and a desire to stop trying, and these folks say, "I have no sense of rhythm."