By Renee

I read somewhere that Michael Joseph Savage liked dancing and it is my conviction that this liking for dance influenced some branches of the LP to hold Learner’s Dances in the 1940s.
I’ve written about them in my memoir but today I’m  thinking about the happiness of dancing and how once you’ve been caught up in the pleasure of moving to music it never leaves you.
Its free and you can do it in the privacy of your own home. There’s plenty of music around. Turn on a radio station or go on spotify or any of the other music apps and you can choose your own.
There’s something about movement to music which is very freeing. The music is like form in poetry.  As long as you keep to the beat you can do any dance steps you like within it. So you can waltz, foxtrot, just move, whatever.
Doesn’t matter your size or height, age or physical condition. Doesn’t matter if you’re visually or physically impaired, you can even  lie in bed or sit on the couch and recreate the pleasure of dancing without worrying about music at all.
I’m sorry that dancing with someone has gone out of fashion because that was fun too. Well not so good if you got someone who trod on your toes but 99% of my dancing life I got people who, while not being Grade A ballroom dancers, were certainly able to hold a beat and dance to music. And in most cases hold some sort of conversation while we danced.
Dancing. is like meditating really. Your mind moves you away from whatever might be a concern. Thoughts about work, health, money, all float away for the moment and you dance unencumbered, light as air.  See? You’re smiling already.
Of course I know Michael–Joseph Savage is renowned and revered for all sorts of things but no-one ever mentions dancing.  So I  just want to say thank you to Michael Joseph for influencing at least some of the Labour Party branches to hold learner’s dances and therefore influencing a young  girl and leading her on to lots of pleasure she might not otherwise have known.