Dancing to disco is the antidote to COVID-19

Join the community of rhythm and re-find your love for your fellow humans

For the last two years about our lives have been ripped up and tossed around by a black swan event, COVID-19.  Nobody, no, not even you Bill Gates, could have foreseen exactly what would happen to us.  Never mind that some people have had a “good” covid and others a “bad” one, that some have gained weight and others lost it.  We have all experienced it differently, and done different things with the disruption.

But the whole world has been disrupted.  How we interact, what we can and cannot do, and how distant “strangers” have become. Social distancing has blocked us from interacting with one another as a society.

Last night, on the beach of St. Tropez, at a bar with my feet in the sand, I finally felt a moment of pure freedom.  One I haven’t felt since this darned virus broke out.

It was hot and sultry, and we drank pastis, and my SO and I and our children had just enjoyed a swim.  Now we were cooling our heels on barstools set in the sand, on the edge of a dance floor, watching the light fade, listening to the light ebb and flow of the water—this is the Med, we don’t get waves on calm days.

The deejay was spinning everything you might want to dance to from the 1970’s, and it wasn’t long before people had drifted on to the dance floor and a general feeling of happiness was spreading.  The place was jammed, and my SO and I soon discovered that one of the most important roles of being a parent is to embarrass your children.

It started with singing along to one great song after another—none of which they seemed to have ever heard of, soon spread to almost-dancing on our bar stools, and then the inevitable happened.  We danced.  And boy did we dance.  It was like a river breaching its banks, and the music flowed and spun and we laughed with our feet and our bodies along with all of the other people who were re-finding their joy as they shook out there bodies like wrinkled sheets.

And there we were swaying, singing, and dancing along with scores of others.  The vibe was lively, happy, and after we both said we hadn’t had so much fun in a very long time.  And hadn’t danced in even longer.  And I realise today as the warm glow still lives in me, that dancing is the antidote to what’s been ailing us.  Especially dancing with strangers.