Sexual Attraction and Sublimation in Dance
When the topic of sexual attraction is discussed in swing dancing, it’s usually something like: “there are two kinds of people
- Those who dance to find sexual partners and
- Those who dance purely for art’s sake.”
As a single straight male lead who’s been doing Lindy and Balboa for 1.5 years, my experience has been a mix of the two. The attraction I still admittedly feel toward my dance partner friends adds fuel and motivation to dance well, in the way Freud describes sublimation: a deflection of libido into higher pursuits. Do any of you feel this way?
It’s important for dancers to distance themselves from the sexual interpretation because it appears to necessarily reduce the art to an animal mating ritual. But a core thematic element of a partner dance as an artwork seems to me to be flirtation, an encounter with a possible lover. Historically social dancing functioned that way; like dogs sniffing each others butts, a greeting enacted through the body and not through language.
So I don’t think I’ll ever get over how attracted I am to the dancers in my scene. But I think you can have both: you can think of yourself as an actor acting out a flirtation. And flirtation is just that: play without serious intent.