MBTI and Dancing

[GarmGarf]

What function(s) is/are used when one dances, if any at all?

Or another question would be: "what function(s) being developed would help an individual to be good at dancing (the most), if any?"


I guess the kind of dance must be considered as well. For example, some dances are predetermined, while there is also "free-style" dancing where individuals are given more room to be creative and to improvise.

 

[Ermine]

In general, I think Se would be very helpful for predetermined or free style. If I understand correctly, Se specializes in getting in sync with surroundings, reading cues, and enjoying physical sensations to name a few.

 

[GarmGarf]

In general, I think Se would be very helpful for predetermined or free style. If I understand correctly, Se specializes in getting in sync with surroundings, reading cues, and enjoying physical sensations to name a few.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well, but I then thought that "new dance moves" have to come out of somewhere.

Would Ne play a part at all in the dance scene, does anyone reckon?

 

[Tyria]

Intuition if you were new to a dance perhaps. Lots of body sense as well.

I suck at dancing though

 

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

I think Fe plays a large role as that is supposedly my lowest attribute and I hate dancing. I don't feel it. although if I were trained in a technical sense or rewarded properly or given drugs that increases extroverted social feeling I could probably do it. I don't count slow dancing, just holding each other and stepping slowly to music at a high school dance is completely different and incredibly easy as long as you can handle touching/close contact with the partner.

Ironically I do naturally well at martial arts. Maybe because I find that to be more fun. Dancing tends to be just a tease when its with females. They do it to get themselves in the mood, and many girls that go to clubs and such have bfs/husbands and just want to interact with their female friends, dry rub against guys so they don't feel like they are cheating and make fun of them. It a SF thing i guess.

 

[JoeJoe]

Well, I did ballroom dancing for some time. The thing that fucked me off a lot was, that I had even more problems than usual with getting integrated in the group.
I think I'm not bad at the dancing itself. With ballroom dancing the male and the female also have different roles. The male has to make sure that they stay in the rythm and decides where the couple is going. The female has to let herself be led and respond to the man's "commands."

I think female NTs are worse at ballroom dancing than male NTs because NTs don't like being told what to do.

I also wonder what function you need to be musical and have a good sense of rhythm...????

 

[Morel Panic]

While there are a few oddballs who treat dance as an art form (break dancing, "historical" square dancing) and can judge it artistically, to the other 99% percent of the population, dance is yet another social skill. Being a "good dancer" isn't about being able gracefully deal with the physical aspects of dancing, it's about being able to gracefully deal with the social aspects of dancing. When it comes down to it dancing is--at its core--moving around in random stupid ways while listening to (almost always) crappy music.

Dances are popular because they give participants a chance to show off their confidence by doing something universally recognized as an act of humiliation. This is why "women like a good dancer". He is confident.

Sorry if I'm too harsh on any dancers on the forum. My conclusions are based off my own (very unpleasant) experiences dancing.

 

[walfin]

I think female NTs are worse at ballroom dancing than male NTs because NTs don't like being told what to do.

What, in this day and age, the man still has to lead?

 

[JoeJoe]

What, in this day and age, the man still has to lead?

Well, if the woman would just do as she wants, they would step on each others' feet.

 

[GarmGarf]

While there are a few oddballs who treat dance as an art form (break dancing, "historical" square dancing) and can judge it artistically, to the other 99% percent of the population, dance is yet another social skill. Being a "good dancer" isn't about being able gracefully deal with the physical aspects of dancing, it's about being able to gracefully deal with the social aspects of dancing. When it comes down to it dancing is--at its core--moving around in random stupid ways while listening to (almost always) crappy music.

Dances are popular because they give participants a chance to show off their confidence by doing something universally recognized as an act of humiliation. This is why "women like a good dancer". He is confident.

Sorry if I'm too harsh on any dancers on the forum. My conclusions are based off my own (very unpleasant) experiences dancing.

I don't think even "free-style" dancing it is 100% about confidence. There are some people who could be really confident yet still laughed at on the dance floor... and these people might still stay up there dancing. And then there are some people who can execute some wicked moves in the privacy of their own home with no observers, but might not have the confidence/dance-floor-comfortability to dance in a club. So maybe there is some sort of dancing skill which is separate to the "gracefully dealing with the social aspects of dancing" skill.

I think you might be exaggerating just a little bit to justify to yourself that others aren't necessarily better dancers than you, and rather just more confident and/or specifically more comfortable with club dancing. But maybe, as you've suggested, any sort of dancing "skill" is negligible compared to the confidence/comfortability factor (although I'd argue that if two individuals were equally confident and comfortable with club dancing, one could still be noticeably a better dancer, and I'd argue that individuals who can dance in their own homes with no observers can still be good dancers, just might not be good at executing that skill in certain environments).


Anyway, about the music: well, it's really hard to dance to certain kinds of music. When I was younger, I totally disrespected dance music - it was tasteless, boring, pointless and just plain crappy (these were very subjective statements). Let's just say since then I acquired a newfound respect towards dance music in its own right - it serves a purpose. A lot of songs undergo remixes for the specific task of making them dance floor friendly. One might argue that the resultant song is (nearly) always worse than the original, but one must note that it was altered for a purpose.

 

[Zaij]

I dance when I get drunk and out at a club. On the night I always think I'm doing well, but the next day I think I was probably acting like a retard. There's that INTP self doubt coming in.

 

[Mondorius]

I dance when I get drunk and out at a club. On the night I always think I'm doing well, but the next day I think I was probably acting like a retard. There's that INTP self doubt coming in.

Oh, I get that feeling a lot. Mostly because I have no clue as to what good dancing is supposed to be like, especially in a club and with hampered and degrading senses.

 

[Ermine]

I think female NTs are worse at ballroom dancing than male NTs because NTs don't like being told what to do.

I'm personally not that stubborn when it comes to dancing. I'll follow along with the same dance as my partner, but if I think they need to step it up a bit, I will lead a bit myself in an effort to synthesize the partner's rhythm and the rhythm of the song.

That being said, I only do ballroom when I have to, and I hardly ever dance due to the social side of it, and my general being out of sync with everything.

 

[Morel Panic]

I think you might be exaggerating just a little bit to justify to yourself that others aren't necessarily better dancers than you, and rather just more confident and/or specifically more comfortable with club dancing. But maybe, as you've suggested, any sort of dancing "skill" is negligible compared to the confidence/comfortability factor (although I'd argue that if two individuals were equally confident and comfortable with club dancing, one could still be noticeably a better dancer, and I'd argue that individuals who can dance in their own homes with no observers can still be good dancers, just might not be good at executing that skill in certain environments).

Like music, visual art, or literary art, dance has the potential to be a interesting form of self-expression. In the quote I mentioned (above) you are defining "good" dancing as effective self-expression and graceful movement. I have no beef with this, but when I talk about dancing, I talk about it in only the way the vast majority of people see it. This fluctuates over time and by culture, but even by otherwise artistic people, dance is seldom seen as anything other than superficial.

I, the people I associate with, and my culture as a whole, wrongfully attach very little value to dancing as an potential art form. My comment was an insult on my culture's general understanding of dancing. The error is not in the art, but in the artificers.

However, there is VERY little art behind dance music. The set of rules music must follow to be "dance-able" is too restrictive and too non-negotiable. Though the music side of dance is very limited artistically, it only serves as a tool to the act of dance itself, and thus is not a restriction. Though woodwork can be a great art, the simple bench a pianist sits on does not limit the artistic potential of his music. I guess one of the reasons dance is difficult for me to appreciate is because, as a musician, when I am at the dance scene, the repulsively shallow music is the first thing I notice and tends to be what I associate dance with most.

 

[GarmGarf]

Oh, ok. I was kinda confused with your initial post because it appeared that you were making a distinction between ways in which dancing "skill" can be perceived (which was a sound contribution to this thread - it puts the question of "what dancing skill is" into focus), but then went on to belittle dancing based on one of these perceptions of it.

I guess you only intended to belittle what has become of free-style club dancing (which was due, according to you, by the commonly held perception of what the "skill" of it is), but I'd argue that regardless of the perceptions being applied to the scene, that type of "skill" which I was referring to (as good dancing), still exists; it still gets called into play. And I'd further argue that it composes a portion of what common club dancers regard as the "skill of the dance", even today.