DUI (Dancing under the Influence)

[DWise1]

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I just saw this a couple hours ago and felt compelled to share. I've never watched "Reno 911" before, but our son (a newly hired cop, BTW; Congrats, Ian!), had left it on.
Scene: cruiser dash-cam of the "blonde bombshell" officer in a DUI stop giving the suspect a field sobriety test. He did great in the walk-a-straight-line-and-turn-around, ending it with an okay spin. So she has him try "step bump, step bump-bump, step bump, step bump-bump" (I don't know the character, but makes you wonder how she had worked her way through the academy), which he also does well. Then something, kick-ball-change, something-else, which he executes well after she counts him off like a dance instructor. Then he starts suggesting some other steps, so she asks him if he's a dancer. "No, I'm not a dancer. I'm just drunk." Ahh, busted!

OK, with that punch-line comes the question: what do you think about drinking and dancing?

I've recently read a thread in the Salsa forum recommending two of a particular mixed drink to get your Cuban motion going.

However, my own reaction to the idea has always been negative, or at least not positive. I've always shied away from alcohol while dancing, because I'm already operating at a disadvantage so, I figure, I need to keep all my wits about me just to function out there. I've gotten feed-back that a lot of other swing dancers are of the same opinion. Before we started swing, my wife and her friend dropped in at Memories one night and one thing that immediately struck them as strange was that everybody spent most of the time dancing and all they were drinking was water, no booze.

I've had two bad experiences (and no good ones) with women in dance classes who had been drinking. The one started to try to pull my hand into her where it did not belong, but the other, who always smelled of whiskey, just simply could not do the steps (Country 2 Step) and was almost impossible to handle.

Yet, in a beginner's WCS class, one woman was always incredibly tense and just could not loosen up at all. She said her friend had suggested that she have a glass of wine before class to loosen up. Although I am in general opposed to the idea, it did start to make a lot of sense that in her case that might be a good thing to try.

[Sagitta]

Depending on the circumstances I can easily drink and dance. I don't do it as a matter of habit, and wouldn't try new moves I think, while under the influence... As I am not a move practitioner I wouldn't be able to say one way or the other. :? :)

[Lucretia]

I think it’s different for different people. I can take 1, 2 or 3 glasses of wine one night dancing salsa. But mostly I take only one or none. I don’t want to loose the “feeling good” effect from dancing by drinking too much. Ice water is mostly what I need. The first glass may sometimes help me to relax.

I don’t believe the drinks have any effect on my dancing. But I know a lot of people who never drinks when dancing, and those are leaders. Perhaps it has to do with the planning or perhaps it had to do with them feeling insecure of salsa and leading. But I’m really grateful these people never drink …they can drive me home (it is 45 minutes home ….ugh!)

I prefer to dance under influence ….influence of great dancers, people I love and happy people! :D

/Lucretia

[Sagitta]

I prefer to dance under influence ….influence of great dancers, people I love and happy people! :D

/Lucretia

Same here Lucretia. :) I had some wonderful dancing last night. No drinking but I was definitely under a good sort of influence. :wink: :)

[DWise1]

I don’t believe the drinks have any effect on my dancing. But I know a lot of people who never drinks when dancing, and those are leaders. Perhaps it has to do with the planning or perhaps it had to do with them feeling insecure of salsa and leading. But I’m really grateful these people never drink …they can drive me home (it is 45 minutes home ….ugh!)
One of my favorite lines in class (sorry, but I've got to start learning lines soon) is to respond to a beginning follow worrying about not remembering the routine from last week by saying, "Don't worry, I'm the designated driver." Of course, that depends on me remembering the routine myself, which is not always the case (made harder for me by having a half-dozen other classes during that week).

[dancingdragon]

When we have dinner/dances we often have a bottle of wine between us at dinner, and normally that is fine but there was one time where I had a little too much wine ... I found it nearly impossible to remember steps and keep track of where we were in the routine, so that pretty much put me off the idea of DUI. :oops: I'm not really a big drinker at the best of times so I could happily take it or leave it, especially if it interferes with my enjoyment of dancing.

When we go out to clubs for social dancing, I might have one alcoholic drink the whole night, and the rest of the time drink water. The physical activity and sweating in a good fast jive or quickstep are pretty dehydrating, and when you add that to the dehydrating effects of alcohol you're heading for a serious lack of dancing energy and also probably a mighty hangover the next day! :?

[dnquark]

So I've done both, once, driving - 2 or 3 years ago, dancing - last week, and now that I think about it, the experiences were pretty similar. (Now before you start yelling, I wasn't out flooring it on the interstate; I drove not more than a third of a mile on empty roads). I felt like I was doing it on autopilot more than anything else, aware of the fact that my perceptiveness and reaction have gone to ****, and not liking it one bit. So I don't want to repeat either experience... Any spontaneity or creativity that I might gain on the dance floor as a result of drinking is negated by decreased balance, precision, but most importantly, by decreased sense of enjoyment and self-control.

[cocodrilo]

I love to drink and can easily spend an entire evening (while eating, of course) with wine, followed by cocktails, etc. In this situation I am sitting down. I dance a pretty hard salsa and I think that over 2 drinks in a 1-hour period would have me falling on my butt. I have, however, managed to do this(the 2-drinks-per-hour) for an entire evening, but mind you I am sweating most of it out and also drinking twice as much water/sports drink as the alcohol. I have been dehydrated before and let me tell you that's no fun either(and I wasn't drinking alcohol!).
I detest dancing with drunks but sometimes it is too late to tell- once you're already out there in the middle of the dance floor with them. :evil:

[Pacion]

:nope: :nope: :nope: :lol: I am a total light weight when it comes to drinking - have never been drunk in my thousand years (tipsy a couple of times in a non-dance environment but that was it).

A few years ago, I had a couple of glasses of sparkling wine at lunch time. That evening I had a salsa class, nothing difficult, but I found it very hard to follow stuff that I could normally do in my sleep! Got home, was annoyed that I was so out of it during class and was wondering what was wrong with me. :idea: then I remembered what I drank at lunch time :lol: I worked out that the wine must be still in my body and since then, I have never DUI or, drank before/during dancing - my body can't handle it :oops: .

I achieve natural highs anyway such that family and friends have said that I get high just on breathing air :lol: then add the music :banana:

[Sabor]

i dont get 'influenced'..
i 'influence'

:lol:

[Pacion]

:doh: :doh: :doh:

:lol:

[squirrel]

I like drinking and usually drink when I go Salsa dancing... I have a good resistance to alcohol so I can take about 3-4 beers and have no problem doing anything on the dance floor!
Still, DUI is not fun! I was caught "tipsy" (more than that actually :oops: ) some nights and dancing was ok, but spinning...! NO way I could spin!
So, even though I do drink when I go out, I keep it at a certain level.

[MacMoto]

I don't drink much, I never did before I started dancing. I hate beer/lager and I react really badly to certain types of wine (and I'm not sure which in particular so I stay away from wine altogether). When out for non-dancing occasions, I may have a glass of something (cider or peach schnapps with a mixer). When dancing, I'm strictly a water gazzler. My spins are bad enough without any help of alcohol. :oops:

[cocodrilo]

I like drinking and usually drink when I go Salsa dancing... I have a good resistance to alcohol so I can take about 3-4 beers and have no problem doing anything on the dance floor!
Still, DUI is not fun! I was caught "tipsy" (more than that actually :oops: ) some nights and dancing was ok, but spinning...! NO way I could spin!
So, even though I do drink when I go out, I keep it at a certain level.
You sound like you'd be great fun to party with, Squirrel! :D

[blue]

The lindy community strikes me as extremely low on alcohol. Hardly anyone drinks anything but water while dancing. While I do find this a lot more appealing than if it was the opposite, I myself like to be a little bit inbetween... like taking a glass of wine in the beginning of the night, or in the middle of it. More than one glass I think will affect my dancing too much.

While it is a good thing, wanting to perform well for your partner, I think it can be just slightly excaggerated; I interpret the no alcohol-culture as a part of a culture where it is very important to perform well. Somehow it might be a little more fun if people relaxed just a little bit more and cared a tiny bit less.

[Vin]

For me it really depends on what the crowd is like. The more serious the dancers are the less I am likely to drink. Nomally when I go dancing though I end up driving and so I have to limit myself or just go at it sober.
A couple of weeks ago I went dancing with a friend and we had each had 3-4 drinks and were feeling tipsy, we thought we did ok though :D.

[squirrel]

We drink because we are relaxed, I guess... I mean, in my country, the norm is to drink, not to stay sober! We love relaxing!

Cocodrilo... I've been told I am a party animal! :lol: :lol:

[Lita_rulez]

I used to drink a lot when I was younger (and stupider)

And when I say "a lot" I mean heavy major drinking. By the end of college, a regular game in a party was trying to get me and a friend of mine drunk, cause we could drink, put everyone under the tables, finish the botles and still run circles around the guys lying in the gutter. (well, running might be a slight exageration of the truth ;) )
But a botle of Tequila (each) & a few cocktails (each) would not scare us.
That even ended up getting us free drinks in bars. But it is a whole other story.

Since then I have gotten wiser (or older) and stoped drinking heavily. I now enjoy drinking something good, and I might get "drunk" in some occasion (I won't say "never again") but I'd rather drink less of something good and in good company.

Besides, I have started dancing, and as someone once put it, strong alcool and rapid turns don't match. So I usually will have a beer or two and a cocktail.

But a few months back, a friend of mine was succesfull at a very important french exam, so he wanted to party, celebrate that to the full extent !
We agreed to meet at the salsa bar we hang out all the time, but that we would probably not dance all that much. I don't remeber if we had 5 or 6 botlles total (we were like a dozen drinking) but I know I was not fit to dance by the end of the evening.

Still, a follow invited me, and since I was definitly, to put it nicely, under influence, I could not realy fight her arguments to drag me onto the dance floor, so I obliged.

Well, believe you me, every cross body lead felt like a triple spin to me ! And I was not quite sure where the other couple dancing were, so I was a litle woried that I might throw my follow into them (I mean, I knew in what general direction they were, but the distance ?)

I lead her for two songs, than thanked her, presented my apologies for the very aproximate lead, and proceeded to navigate (yes, navigate, it felt like water under the ground, moving around) to my chair.

A few days later, we were having dinner together, and she told me :
"you know, I was very impressed the other night. I mean, you told me you were too drunk to dance, but I thought you were kidding. Then we got on the dance floor, and I sow how your eyes were shining, I thought to myself uh oh, he is drunk after all ! but no, you held your own, and it didn't feel like you were drunk. A bit simpler stuff, a few weird ones, but all in all, very nice dances, as usual. Really impressed"

I went : well, you know what, I did have a hard time holding my own though : every CBL feeled like a triple spin, and not that I don't like dancing with you, for I do, but those 2 songs felt very long to me..."

Ans she smiled at me and said : "Well, you obviously were a lot more drunk than I thought, because we did not dance two songs. We did 5 or 6 straight !"

:shock:

:?

:oops:


...

And this is why, kids, you should not do drugs !

[cocodrilo]

Well, Lita, you only have one liver after all! Drinking oneself into oblivion is indeed foolish and fortunately most people wisen up with age!
I, like Squirrel, am a party animal(just look at our avatars & see!) and drink socially, to have fun & feel good, not for contests or to prove anything. I refuse to have any part of activities that involve such juvenile abuse of alcohol. In Japan, too, people take their social drinking seriously and drinks are involved in almost every occasion, even at a Shinto wedding where the bride & groom sip sake. Every business situation where I am not in an office involves going out for drinks and I am sure glad I am not a lightweight! Being a "strong drinker" has earned me quite a good reputation with some business heavies!

[SDsalsaguy]

I went : well, you know what, I did have a hard time holding my own though : every CBL feeled like a triple spin, and not that I don't like dancing with you, for I do, but those 2 songs felt very long to me..."

Ans she smiled at me and said : "Well, you obviously were a lot more drunk than I thought, because we did not dance two songs. We did 5 or 6 straight !"
:shock: :shock: :shock: :uplaugh: :uplaugh: :uplaugh:

Now that's funny!!! A bit frightening perhaps, but funny none the less!


I, like Squirrel, am a party animal(just look at our avatars & see!)
:doh: :lol:

[Chris Stratton]

From an AP article temporarily on the Boston Globe site: http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2004/09/21/attorney_says_high_heels_factor_in_sobriety_test/

Thomas contended it would be "fundamentally unfair" to use the results of field sobriety tests against one of his female client because she was wearing stiletto heels at the time, making her unsteady on her feet.


One of the tests required the woman to walk a straight line for some distance and then pivot quickly. In another, she was supposed to stand on one foot for 30 seconds.


Considering that she was wearing stiletto heels, the woman did remarkably well by making it to 16 seconds, Thomas argued.

Guess she wasn't a dancer...

[squirrel]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: