Born to Dance?

I was born to dance...in China. Anyone who knows me or has seen me out on the dance floor can vouch for the fact that have no ability to move my body to a beat whatsoever. For starters, there is no movement below my waist, which is apparently crucial to being a good dancer. I've heard that it's all in the hips. That means all I have left to work with is my upper body because moving my hips is a lost cause. Moving your upper body to a beat seems simple enough, but I manage to botch that too. I have a knack for nodding my head a lot when I dance, so what I end up doing is a weird sort of torso sway mixed with nodding my head to the beat. I still haven't quite figured out what to do with my arms during all of this swaying/nodding, so they mostly just hang around. Sometimes I'll lift them up and see if I can work any magic with them, but I quickly realize that they are much better at just swaying awkwardly with my torso. Bottom line: It's not pretty. This fact has been hard to cope with because given my background with music it would make sense for me to at least be a decent dancer. Somehow keeping time on a musical instrument, which I am pretty good at, doesn't translate into moving your body to a beat. Who knew? So to go back to my statement that opened this blog I have to point out that while I am an atrocious dancer back home I get treated like royalty at the clubs here in China. It turns out that most Chinese males are at the same skill level of dancing that I am (the stereotypes are true), but since I am an American I have some sort of special power. That special power is being able to fool people into thinking that I am a great dancer and that all the moves I do are what ALL Americans do. Popular culture here is definitely modeled after us, so they love any chance they get to see us in action. It is strange enough just walking into a club in China because everyone immediately takes notice of you. Any employees in the area practically run up to you and see if you need anything. As weird as it is going into a club it is even crazier out on the dance floor. The first club I ever went to and danced at was by far the best experience I've had while going out so far. It took a couple drinks for me to work up the courage to get out to the dance floor, but I eventually made my way to where the DJ was playing music. I started my attempt at dancing along with the other Americans that were there with me. Everyone turned towards us and carefully studied our moves. A couple of us caught on to this and quickly abused our newly discovered stardom. I lifted my right arm up and started moving it in a circle just to see what would happen. No sooner than I made the first rotation with my hand did I see one or two Chinese guys doing the same thing. Awesome. I started doing some completely random leg movements and some more guys quickly followed suit. I continued to move in ridiculous ways and watched as more Chinese people emulated my dance style. I started to feel guilty for doing this after a while, but then I thought to myself that I am entitled to such behavior since I can't dance back home without looking silly. It was all in fun. From reading this you might think we were just toying with all those people, but it wasn't like that. At no point during the night were any of the people in my group condescending towards the people we were dancing with. On the contrary, we were all very humbled and taken aback by what was happening. It was hard to discern who was having more fun; us or the Chinese. We all enjoyed the cultural experience and began to make friends. Something else I learned that night is that it is completely acceptable for males to come up to you and start dancing with you. The first instance of this happened when I was dancing near my friend Ian. All of a sudden a really drunk Chinese man came up to us and put one arm around me, one arm around Ian, and proceeded to sway with both of us. Ian and I just passed this off as drunken behavior until some sober guys started doing the same thing. It wasn't too awkward because none of them made a pass at us, but it was definitely not something that would be socially acceptable back home. Another lesson about China is that it is theoretically possible to not pay for a single drink all night when you go out to a club. This is usually true for females anywhere, but it is surprisingly the same way for American males here. All you have to do is work your way over to a table with a large group of people. Give them a nod, flash a smile, wave, and start dancing. Throw a few high-fives in the mix and you're golden. From there you need to point to a glass, mime that you are taking a drink, and you will be presented with a full glass of whatever those people are drinking. Next you say cheers, enjoy a round of drinks, hang out for a little longer so they don't get suspicious, and then be on your way to the next table. Works every time. It sounds more devious than it actually is. Those are perfect opportunities to meet the locals and practice Mandarin. Lots of these people are more than willing to teach you Chinese in exchange for teaching them English. We have all made a couple Chinese friends from going out and I hope to continue that trend throughout the semester. The nightlife is definitely a force to be reckoned with over here. It could easily consume any college student, but so far we haven't let it get out of control. Besides, if I go out too much I'll have to learn new dance moves to show everyone. And I'm running out of ways to flail my arms like an idiot.