We All Dance For Someone

Monday, 9.27pm

Sheffield, U.K.

The idea of dancing is the only thing that scares me. – Johnny Depp

There is a series on Amazon Prime called “Panchayat”, a back to the village comedy that many people might find hard to appreciate.

Other than the billion or so people in India, of course.

It has, like the best comedies, penetrating flashes of insight into the human condition.

In one scene the main character asks a dancer why she does this job – the village equivalent of dancing on a table at a bar.

Everyone dances for someone, she points out.

Think about that for a second.

The vast majority of us are beholden to others, we dance to their tune.

We get paid to do so.

At what point did this happen?

Somewhere between being a slug and going to the moon there was a point when we invented a social structure that kept us in place, vibrating just enough not to complain and bring the structure down.

So what’s the takeaway here?

You wouldn’t think this if to look at me but I used to teach dance once.

It wasn’t that I was good at it – I was really pretty bad.

And that was pointed out to me.

Which made me a little mad. Ok. A lot mad.

So I practiced. And I got better. And I got good.

I haven’t done it now for ages – because life has moved on and other things became more important.

So the takeaway is this.

If you have to dance – get good at it.

Cheers,

Karthik Suresh