Most Played Lindy Hop Video

I happened to wander over to Wandering and Pondering's blog today and noticed a little post about the most played Lindy Hop videos on Youtube.

Interestingly enough, this is the most played Lindy Hop video to come out in 2012, so far.

So I've decided to candidly list all of my thoughts in order as I watched:

• Oh, man.  Here we go.  Another modern song with "swing dancing" in it.  Great.
• I remember this song.  Do they play this at the Grotto sometimes?
• The color pallet is really kind of nice... I like the way these shots look.
• The dancing seems pretty good, but it's off time from the song. Nice work, Director.
• But wait... I recognize those dancers.  These are actually known Lindy Hoppers... cool.
• And several different couples, and they're actually DANCING.  Nice.
• Well, it's not my favorite song, but this video could be much worse.
• I really like the scenery... the mood of these clips... 
• Dancing at night... out in public... during the day, whenever, wherever.  I can dig this.
• Yeah.  I really like the positive vibe.  
• Why the hell are we not dancing out in public more?

And that's where I ended up. So let me ask you, why the hell are we not just dancing out in public more? What's wrong with us? Is this something we just grow out of?  

It seems to me that we all go through that phase.  We decide to try going out dancing one night, and before too long we're hooked and going dancing all the time, as often as we can.  After a few months we get over the initial difficulty hump and think we're the best dancers in the world.  Then follows the Lindybomb ALL The Things mentality, and we all make fools of ourselves dancing horribly in public and probably in videos that show up on facebook, all the while having a blast thinking we look soooo awesome.

We soon grow out of this phase and realize that no, we just look silly, and we stop just dancing when the time feels right.  So the pendulum swings the other way and we avoid it at all costs.

But, like most things in life, isn't there a balance?  Isn't the best time to dance in public after we've reached a point where we actually are better dancers, and when the mood is right?  When there happens to be music, or an outdoors event, or just a group of friends hanging out at the park with a boombox and we feel it?  When we think to ourselves that this song would be fun to dance to, and then we "act like adults" and hold ourselves back instead, but there's no reason not to dance. Aren't those the right times?

So let's dress up a little, stand out, look nice, have some fun, and make people stop and look.  Maybe it's time again.