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Folk Dance Federation of California, South, Inc.
DANCING WITH TWO LEFT FEET |
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It's not how much you dance. It's how much you enjoy it.
In a recent WIRED article (that is another nerdy magazine I faithfully read from cover to cover each month) about Nike "unleashing the power of personal metrics." They talk about their new invention of attaching a small sensor to the sneakers, that measures the steps one takes, and then transmits that information to an iPod in one's pocket. This way one can track every step one takes. By downloading this information to a personal computer, we can also keep statistics not only on the amount of steps one takes, but also on how many steps per minute, and the time of the day one exercises.
What a neat idea for folk dancers!
With such a device you could keep track of all the dancing you do each evening, and also keep statistics for each month, and throughout the year.
I am sure that the software whizzes could come up with a program that could recognize the actual songs we danced to. That way, you could not only keep track of how long you dance, but also which dances you did.
Running statistics on our groups would tell us what dances are popular, or what dances we seldom do. Keeping such scientific statistics could tell what the majority wants, rather than depending on that evening's programmer's whims.
I am not sure if this would work for me, unless it could be a great motivator to dance more, since it would shamelessly tell me how much time I spent sitting out dances on the sidelines. Besides, with my two left feet, I am sure I would totally screw up the tracking program.
Isn't science wonderful!
But I am being carried away too much by my nerdy scientific mind.
To tell you the truth, I am so glad that we all just dance and have fun without worrying about what dances we do and how often or how long we do them. The old music performed on old and simple instruments keeps us grounded and also maintains our connection to our roots and reminds us of where we all came from to be here to dance together
So, despite the heavy advertising by Nike, don't rush out to buy the sneaker sensors.
Just enjoy the dancing!
Printed in Folk Dance Scene, "DANCING WITH TWO LEFT FEET (49), October 2009.