In This Dark Political Era, We All Could Use a Little More Dance
From Puerto Rico’s protests to Pete Buttigieg’s rallies, dancing was an infectious way for political movements to spread joy and solidarity in 2019
When the chorus of Panic! At The Disco’s “High Hopes” is about to hit, Pete Buttigieg’s supporters pump themselves up like they about to do several pirouettes on command. Instead, the routine for the massively popular choreography involves just some side-to-side gestures, hand rolls, and claps. Though the dance is a strange phenomenon and one that is likely to annoy the more cynical among us, it also showcases how it can be used to create community in this exhausting political moment.
“If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be in your revolution,” goes a famous misquotation of fierce feminist and anarchist activist Emma Goldman’s 1931 autobiography, Living My Life. The paraphrasing of Goldman’s words is way off, but it has resonated for decades because it captures how, for many people, political movements cannot…
