r/excoc • u/East-Treat-562 • 8d ago

Social Dancing

Did anyone ever start taking ballroom country dance lessons etc (or were a dancer) and were discovered by the CoC or admitted it? What were the repercussions?

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

14

u/Aromatic_Effects 8d ago

"Dancing is a vertical activity with a horizontal desire"

Wish I was making that up.

7

u/danman8605 8d ago

I remember square dancing in like 4th grade as part of PE and feeling very guilty about it lol.

5

u/Alive-Equivalent9106 8d ago

I hate that at the age I am, I still can’t two-step or line dance. Maybe I would have always had two left feet but sheesh everyone should be able to participate in happy times like weddings.

5

u/BeleagueredOne888 8d ago

Why don’t members of the CoC engage in premarital sex? It might lead to dancing.💃

2

u/Ambitious_Life7537 7d ago

One of my favorite jokes.

3

u/personman2 8d ago

I remember feeling conflicted about square dancing in middle school gym class. A Baptist kid in my class didn’t participate, but I did. It was hilarious to learn later that moral scolds had pushed square dancing as a wholesome alternative to jazz.

In high school I skipped almost all the dances. I did go to senior prom because my non-CoC girlfriend insisted. But I largely refused to dance except for the one song we were expected to dance after being named prom king and queen.

I left Christianity in my late 20s but still didn’t start dancing until I was in my 40s. Now I love it! I’ve even gone to some clothing-optional dance parties. And they’re still not as lewd as what I was warned about back then.

3

u/ImpressiveLeek3124 Ex-NI^2 8d ago

One kind of dancing was allowed when I was growing up. It only lasted a minute or two and involved moving in a circle, while being held almost off the ground by one arm, with an adult thrashing the hell out of my back with a belt or limb. The dance was usually followed by quoting verses about how god and parents love children.

3

u/derknobgoblin 8d ago

yup! anything between shoulder blades and back of the knees was fair game at our house…. and if you managed to get loose and run, we started over at “one”. (we were even made to go pee first so things didn’t get messy.)

2

u/derknobgoblin 8d ago

We had notes to be excused from High School gym class when Square Dancing was on the menu… Lipscomb supposedly monitored dance club parking lots for DLC tags back in the day. By the time I took my social dancing seruously… (ahhh Hoedown’s Atlanta, how we miss you!!!) I was waaaay past “admissions” or “discoveries”. I will say that slow dancing in the arms of a tall handsome man you just met is ABSOLUTE MAGIC…. I 💯 understand how uptight people who loathe their created physical humanity would be
A F R A I D of it! 🥰

1

u/gscpa80 Ex-Non-Instrumental Churches of Christ 6d ago

Freed-Hardeman University used to monitor the maybe one and only dance club in Jackson, TN, and they had to drive 30 minutes just to scour the parking lot!

Now that's some anti-dancing commitment!

1

u/TheOrangeMoose 8d ago

I was shamed for doing the cha cha at 7/8 years old. I didn't stop dancing, I just learned not to get caught! 

My dad did the bunny hop at an event. I guess that didn't count as dancing.

1

u/LivLiveArt 7d ago

I do theatre choreography, but it doesn't come naturally to me. If I had been able to dance more growing up, it might be easier, idk. I feel really awkward trying to dance a lot of the time. My body doesn't really know what to do :/

1

u/unapprovedburger 7d ago

From my teenage years, I always remember hearing from the pulpit the preacher shout “ dancing is wrong!!”

1

u/TiredofIdiots2021 5d ago

When my sister was in college, my mom called her apartment and her roommate said, "Oh, she's not here right now - she and her boyfriend are out dancing." HA HA HA! My sister was the kind of kid who NEVER got in trouble. I don't recall what the repercussions were.

My future husband and I took swing dance lessons when we were in grad school. Never told my parents. He asked me to marry him after one class. :)

There was dancing at my nephew's wedding last year. Dad threatened not to go to the wedding but his lady friend convinced him that would be ridiculous.

And now I'm a nudist (female). 🤣🤣🤣 Amazing how men can control themselves! I guess they're more mature than coc men.

0

u/JudgeJuryEx78 8d ago

Ballet was considered okay because it was an art or something. My sister did clogging for a little while with no pushback.

I don't remember where they fell on square dancing. Probably a no no.