Go ahead and watch the babies boppin and dancing in the Snazl above.  All of the clips are cute and one clip shows a baby dance prodigy.  But with a pair of anthropological glasses, one can see more than adorable children having fun.

All people all over the world dance.  Some people dance alone when no one is looking, others perform complicated maneuvers on stage for an audience, and others prove they are part of the group by joining the tribal dance around a campfire (or in a dance club for Manhattanites!).  Judith Lynne Hanna attempts to define dancing in her book (on page 19 for you serious academics) in the following way:

Dance can be most usefully defined as human behavior composed, from the dancer’s perspective, of (1) purposeful, (2) intentionally rhythmical, and (3) culturally patterned sequences of (4a) nonverbal body movements (4b) other than ordinary motor activities, (4c) the motion having inherent and aesthetic value… Within this conceptualization, human behavior must meet each of these four criteria in order to be classified as “dance.”

This excerpt is a pretty good definition of dance, but still cumbersome. Even the Economist had a rough time defining music and dance.  Why? because dance is meant to be that way.  It’s one of those things human beings intuitively know, but cannot describe.  As my intelligent, tattooed, ex-gangster friend likes to say, “Its difficult to say what porn is, but you know it when you see it!”  Humans know what dancing is when they see it.  One may not like the music or movement, but when seen, one knows it is meant to be dance.

Thus, the answer may be found by observing babies.  At about the time babies start sitting up, they recognize and move to music.  Before then, babies are testing out their muscles by flinging their arms and legs about. There is a big difference between babies moving limbs and babies being cognizant of rhythm and moving to it (see my snazl again).  Usually, the first attempts to dance and move to music begin in the “bum” and lower back.  As the child gets older and listens to more music, the movement evolves and involves the head. Eventually, arm movements, wiggles, and twirls will be included as the child ages.

It is so important to find out why basic music recognition, movement, and dancing, occurs so early on in human development.  Babies exhibit and learn behaviors that are crucial to their survival such as recognizing family, talking, and walking.  How does learning dance so early keep babies alive? How did dance become an evolutionary advantage? Why is dancing in our DNA?

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