The Case For Dancing Alone
There’s a point in a good night out when you stop giving a shit what you look like.
You’re not dancing for the room anymore. You’re barely aware of it. The track is good, the sound is loud, and whatever your body is doing seems to be working just fine.
That might be the best kind of dancing.
Not dancing by yourself. Dancing for yourself.
WE'RE ALL A LITTLE TOO AWARE OF OURSELVES
Dancing should be one of the easiest things in the world. Put on music. Move.
Then other people show up.
Suddenly you have arms you don't know what to do with. You become aware of how much you're moving, or how little. You look around to see what everyone else is doing. Somewhere along the way, something completely instinctive becomes something you can apparently be bad at.
There’s research around this. Psychologists use the term social physique anxiety to describe the discomfort that comes from feeling like other people are evaluating your body. A recent review of dance studies found that dance participation was associated with improvements in physical self-esteem and reductions in social physique anxiety, although the researchers also noted limitations in the quality of the available evidence.
We’re more interested in the simpler observation:
It feels really fucking good when you stop caring.
A dark room helps.
So does loud music.
A ROOM FULL OF PEOPLE, LEAVING YOU ALONE
One of the things we love about dance floors is that they allow for a strange kind of privacy.
You can walk into a room packed with people and disappear.
Nobody needs an explanation. Nobody needs you to make conversation. You don't have to introduce yourself to the person next to you. You can spend an hour three feet away from someone and never learn their name.
But you're not really alone either.
You're hearing the same kick. Feeling the same bass. Waiting through the same build. Losing it at the same drop.
There’s evidence that this kind of shared movement matters. Oxford researchers found that both physical exertion and moving in synchrony increased feelings of social bonding among people dancing together.
A club isn't a laboratory, obviously. And nobody on a good dance floor is moving in perfect synchronization.
But the underlying idea feels familiar.
You don't always need to talk to someone to feel connected to them.
Sometimes you just need to be in the same room when the right track comes on.
NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS INSTRUCTIONS
We spend a lot of time being told how to move.
Ten reps. Three sets. Hold this position. Follow the instructor. Watch yourself in the mirror. Close your rings.
Useful? Sure.
But sometimes you want to move without accomplishing anything.
No choreography. No counts. No trying to keep up with the person next to you.
Just music.
Research into dance and well-being is growing, with studies finding promising associations with things like mood, social connection, body perception, and emotional well-being. The evidence isn't perfect, and different studies look at very different kinds of dance, so we're not going to tell you that dancing is medicine. It isn't.
We will tell you to go dancing.
MOVE ALONE. TOGETHER.
This idea ended up becoming pretty important to how we built BNKR.
Everyone gets their own space.
The DJ doesn't give you choreography. The instructor isn't asking you to copy them. Nobody cares if the person next to you is moving twice as hard or barely moving at all.
For 60 minutes, we're all listening to the same thing.
What you do with it is yours.
MOVE ALONE. TOGETHER.
RELEASE by BNKR explores music, movement, community, culture, and whatever else keeps us on the floor.
RELEASE
by BNKR
MOVEMENT. MUSIC. COMMUNITY. CULTURE.
Stories, sounds, ideas, and people from BNKR and beyond.
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BNKR TECHNO FITNESS
60 minutes of movement, music, community, and release. Live DJs. No choreography. Just move.
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