By Paul Ransom
“It’s like I’m flying, it’s a feeling of weightlessness,” says Anna Bonetti, a 22 year old Melbourne based actor. “When I’m really into it it’s like no one else is in the room.”
For many people the only real dancing they ever do is in nightclubs or at parties. They aren’t trained, they don’t even do social ballroom. To the expert eye they may look like uncoordinated fools out there on the floor but when they’re ‘into it’ the feeling is exhilarating. Perhaps this is why dance is a part of every human culture; because there is something utterly primal about moving in time (or even slightly out of time).
“I can’t really explain it,” 31 year old accountant Adam Grey tells me, “but I feel kinda cleansed after I’ve been clubbing all night. There's tension release. I love it.”
“In a way it’s like you become the music,” Anna Bonetti adds. “Like you’re losing yourself in it.”
This kind of response is probably not unknown to trained dancers. The visceral thrill of performance is clearly an addictive and uplifting buzz, and that thrill is perhaps less about great lines and perfect moves and more about the feeling of the dance.
However, according to Paul Malek, a professional dancer and Artistic Director with Melbourne based outfit Collaboration-The Project, there is a marked difference between performance and the disco. “The adrenaline that I get before, during and after a performance is far greater than anything I have ever experienced. The joy and adrenaline I used to get whilst on a dancefloor was always only a mild version of this, and although it was enjoyed, I find improvising in a studio far more rewarding and fulfilling than having a boogie on the dancefloor.”
May Cheah, a Sydney based dancer currently touring with West Side Story in Europe concurs. “At the end of the night, when I'm on stage, I know I'm being watched, judged, and enjoyed, and knowing that [the audience] have paid for a performance, I dance partly for them. When there is a good response from the audience, I feel like I've made a small achievement, and great applause always makes me feel good. But at a disco it’s different because I'm dancing purely for me. There’s definitely more freedom, but less meaning and purpose. I really do enjoy both so much, but if I had to choose, I would say that I enjoy performance dancing more because that is my life, not a hobby.” Whilst dedicated clubbers like Adam Grey admit that they would find it “pretty restricting” to have to follow set steps, trained dancers often report finding it more difficult to ‘let go’ and just dance freely.
“I was classically trained for most of my early years up until my late teens and I found it quite hard to be able to let go and feel relaxed on the dancefloor, in fact utterly
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