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Jeremy Cherfas

Salsa in Central Park

I don’t agree with Roger Scruton on much, but I do agree with him that limiting social dance to clubs and EDM festivals where everyone is drunk or high is not good for us. Scruton’s solution is to yearn for the glory days of eighteenth century Europe. My solution is to look to our friends from the African diaspora, whose social norms around music and dance are very different from those of white people, and in a lot of ways, more grown up.

Very well said; one the other hand, there is always Irish, Scottish and English "folk dancing" and its many derivatives, which are so much fun and which I could do, more and more often.

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This is a fair point. Roger Scruton mentions Highland reels as an example of the kind of dance he approves of for the same reason. They do look like fun! But while UK folk culture is appealing to a lot of people, when I think about Americans and Westerners generally, I see broader potential in the African diaspora. We've already built our entire popular music around their traditions; why not adopt more of their norms around dance too?

Ethan Hein, Sep 03 2019 on stream.jeremycherfas.net

Absolutely. I'm not saying it needs to be either or. And my understanding is that square dancing and line dancing are derivatives too, that offer many of the same benefits of the Sarabande and its ilk.

Jeremy Cherfas, Sep 03 2019 on stream.jeremycherfas.net