That taken care of I want to share my philosophy on dancing with y'all. I can't take the credit for this philosophy though, it comes mainly from my high school Chaplin Fr. Jarrod, who was one of the folks responsible for teaching me how to dance. Since the last couple years of high school I've been blessed to have amazing friends in both Kansas and Texas to go dancing with. We started out mostly country swing dancing but as I've gotten older I'm to the point where I mostly two step now, its just a lot less work. lol. My education in dancing began sometime during my freshman year of high school at a wedding. My Mom pulled me out on the dance floor at the reception and said, "Anthony, I'm gonna teach you how dance because girls like guys that can dance." Thank you Mom. That raises the question though, what is it about men that can dance that women like? Stasi Elridge says in Captivating that every little girl goes through a twirly skirt phase and I think maybe every women still has a little bit of that little girl left in them. Ultimately the twirly skirt makes them feel beautiful, a princess, and I don't think that's a desire that disappears from women's hearts as they grow up.
Fr. Jarrod would say that the role of men and women on the dance floor flows from who God created them to be. To jump back a bit I think it's important to start with Genesis. For 5 days God is creating all kinds of things, light and darkness, sun and moon, trees and fishies and at the end of every day God proclaims that what he has just created is good. Then He gets to the sixth day and fashions a creature in His own image and likeness giving him dominion over all the rest of creation but after God finishes man and places him in the Garden of Eden He, for the first time, proclaims that it is not good, not good for man to be alone. And so God fashions a partner for Adam, Eve flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone and after giving them to each other God proclaims that it is very good and takes His rest on the 7th day. Eve is the crown jewel of creation. Without her something is missing, incomplete but with her it is very good. Though some time has passed since then, I don't think all that much has changed really. Rightly understood women are still the crown jewel of creation. While men may be strong and protective, reflecting God's strength and guardianship, women are beautiful. They make manifest in the most powerful way the great goodness of God's beauty. While it takes both men and women to manifest God's true image, we have different, complementary roles.
These roles translate directly onto the dance floor. The man's job when dancing is to make manifest the woman's beauty, not only to everyone else in the room but also to herself. The man's whole attention should be given to making her look and feel as she truly is, the crown jewel of creation. It always disappoints me when I'm out dancing and see some big macho guy throwing a girl all over the place. The point of any dance move shouldn't be for the guy to show off how big or buff or skilled he is but rather to make the woman look beautiful. Its also tough when you dance with a woman that won't let the man lead because ultimately she prevents the man from being able to fulfill his role of manifesting her beauty. Fr. Jarrod summarized this all by saying that on the dance floor the man's job was to make sure every eye on the room was on his partner, and the woman's job was to make sure that his eyes were only on her.
So men I call you to rise to the challenge and live out the role God has created you for. We live in a society in which our sisters are constantly under attack, bombarded with the lies that they are not beautiful, that they have to do this thing or dress that way if anyone will ever notice them. While I know there are other ways that we as men can help women overcome these lies, dancing is one of the best methods I've found. So next time you're out and you hear a fiddle and guitar pluck up some courage and ask a girl to dance; as a wise woman once told me "girls like guys that can dance." God bless and if you need some pointers catch me next time we meet. Until then though, see you in the Eucharist!
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