Oh, this is just too good.

As an avid Lindy Hop dancer, I’ll be the first to admit that I take part in a culture that is unique in a lot of ways. The social norms and system of etiquette are complex, well-developed, and unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced. Most of the dancers I know take great pleasure/pride in discussing the culture’s peculiarities; it fills our online message boards.

That’s why I think this article–from the world of evolutionary psychology–is so great (from Newmark’s Door via Marginal Revolution):

I noticed that at my local jive club, all the best male dancers did or had done martial arts. Patrick Swayze, the heart-throb star of the ultimate chick-flick Dirty Dancing is a karate black belt. Bruce Lee, hailed by many as the finest martial artist ever, was Hong Kong’s Cha-cha champion. There seems to be a link between male dancing and male fighting ability.

To dance well, one needs good health, poise, co-ordination, stamina, strength, athleticism, rhythm, balance, suppleness, speed, an ability to predict and react to the movements of others (especially for partnered dancing), and style. Interestingly enough, all these things are also what make a good fighter. Yes, even style is useful, for it intimidates opponents.

If a woman were to see a man dance, then she would have a good idea of how naturally talented at fighting he might be. One might argue that a better thing to do would be to watch the man fight. … Furthermore, I suggest that the ideal man a woman would want for a husband, is a man who can fight very well, but who doesn’t fight.

…

How then, can a woman find such a man? If he fights only in defence of his wife and children, then until he has these, he will never fight, and she will never see him fight. She could encourage him to dance. If she sees him dance, then she is able to judge his talent for fighting, and no one gets hurt.

…

Dancing is a woman’s way of asking “How good are you at fighting?”

Tyler Cowen and Craig Newmark both link to this article in jest because it’s so over the top. They’re right; the article makes enormous generalities, suggests bizarre hypotheses, and as academic literature goes, just ain’t so hot (maybe that’s why the original link is broken). But that’s precisely why I eat it up.

Here are a couple more of my favorite quotes from the article:

I have done a fair bit of salsa and latin dance, but my real love is for the swing dances: jitterbug, jive, shim sham, shag, balboa, and Lindy hop. I have noticed one interesting difference between salsa and Lindy hop, which fits my theory rather well.

At the end of a salsa dance which goes well for me, I might get a favourable reaction from my partner. Often, this consists of her opening her eyes as if waking from a nice dream, and saying “That was nice.” She had closed them during the dance, and had been imagining that I was a young Robert Redford. While dancing with me, she had surrendered control of her body to my lead and her auto-pilot. She had contributed nothing to the choreography of the dance, and had instead been content to go wherever she was led. She was moving to the music, and the music was constant. She was a slave to the rhythm and to the lead. She had enjoyed the dance for the simple reason that she happens to get a kick out of moving to music. It is a sort of Bacchanalian revelry.

At the end of a good swing dance, things are very different. We both build up for the big finish, and then jump and land perfectly together and on the beat, each having predicted what the other would do. The reaction I see is that she looks at me with a look of joy and satisfaction, as if to say “We did it!” During the dance, she had contributed a great deal to the choreography, and the music had not been constant, but punctuated by pauses and complicated changes of rhythm. All the time she had been alert to what was going on, and improvising to suit.

I suppose that for modesty’s sake I should say that not all my dances go this well.

The relevance of this contrast is that I know many people who do both salsa and Lindy hop. Every single example of someone who prefers salsa, the dance, to Lindy hop, is female. Women seem to enjoy dancing for different reasons. Women seem to get an innate joy from moving to music, like those women dancing round their handbags at the night club. Men by contrast, seem to get joy from dancing well, but not nearly so much from the mere act of dancing. A good Lindy hopping man will therefore prefer Lindy to salsa. When asked why, the women who prefer salsa have all given me the same answer: “It’s a more sensual dance.”

Some women with whom I have corresponded on this topic have reported feeling a “romantic rush” once they have been dancing for a while. It seems that dance can put women “in the mood”, so to speak. Any good male dancers in their vicinity at this point would be in the best position to take advantage of this.

Perhaps the author’s hypotheses are the very best part:

I believe that my theory is strong. I shall make some predictions, all of them testable.

…

Women, far more than men, will find the skill with which a potential mate can dance far more of a factor which influences their choices of mate. This will be true of all societies.

…
Men who are good dancers will have more affairs than men who are bad dancers. If this single prediction is well-supported, then this will form a strong pillar for my theory. Anything which improves a man’s chances of passing on genes, is likely to end up forming part of innate human nature.

Women will rate the likely future marital fidelity of men who dance well as lower than that of men who dance badly. One lady with whom I corresponded on this theory told me that her mother had forbidden her to marry a good dancer, because such a man would “be trouble”. The instincts of women are finely honed to be watchful of the straying attentions of men. If women rate good dancers as sexy, then they will also rate good dancers as more able to have affairs.

For the record, I’m a terrible fighter. The one time I got into a fight–in seventh grade–I was lucky: a teacher broke the thing up before I had time to get clobbered. I’ve never had an affair, nor do I intend to do so. Although, for the record, swing dancing really helps you meet girls. Really really.

Since there are other ways to win a woman than [dancing], for most men, it is best to avoid comparing oneself with rival mates on the dance floor. Women do not rate dance ability above all else. It is but one of many factors. They also like intelligence, kindness, a handsome face, and of course a fat wallet. Every little helps, though, and evolution will favour any little advantage that one creature can get over another.

It is well recognised that women are more choosy about sexual partners. Natural selection has armed women with dance to improve their powers of choice. Natural selection has also equipped men with a useful fear of this weapon. That’s why men won’t dance.

You really need to read the whole article.

Posted on May 1st, 2006 by Lee
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