Dancing

[pyrodude208]

I was wondering if dancing was sinful. I’m pretty sure slow dancing isn’t (feel free to correct me if you think otherwise), even though the guy’s hands are on the girl’s hips or waist. I was wondering more about the “bump and grind” style of dancing, which is prevalent in our schools. This style involves the guy’s crotch against the girl’s buttocks, and the two rock back and forth in sync to the music. The guy’s hands can be on the girl’s hips or waist, in her hands, or just hanging by the side. Any help on this moral matter would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if it sinful, would you classify it as a mortal sin, a venial sin, or just an imperfection?

 

[Ruthie]

Pyrodude, I think the kind of dancing you call “bump and grind” may indeed be sinful. That’s because of two things.

First, I can’t see how anybody could dance it without getting sexually aroused, and that leads to lust.

Second, I would have trouble watching such a dance and not feeling aroused, which again leads to lust. That makes dancing that way scandalous according to the Church’s definition. “Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!” Lk 17:1

Keep in mind that I am not normally prudish, and enjoy dancing!

Ruthie

 

[peary]

I was wondering if dancing was sinful. I’m pretty sure slow dancing isn’t (feel free to correct me if you think otherwise), even though the guy’s hands are on the girl’s hips or waist. I was wondering more about the “bump and grind” style of dancing, which is prevalent in our schools. This style involves the guy’s crotch against the girl’s buttocks, and the two rock back and forth in sync to the music. The guy’s hands can be on the girl’s hips or waist, in her hands, or just hanging by the side. Any help on this moral matter would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if it sinful, would you classify it as a mortal sin, a venial sin, or just an imperfection?

Dances which openly display extreme sexual behavior as you have mentioned in your post are definitely sinful and should be not engaged in by Christians.

 

[surfinpure]

Dances which openly display extreme sexual behavior as you have mentioned in your post are definitely sinful and should be not engaged in by Christians.

I agree. There can be no question that a dance which imitates sexual behavior is sinful.

Dancing is not inherently sinful, and a lot depends on the attire, the type of dance, and the disposition of the dancers themselves. I would wager that for teenage boys, slow dancing is a near occasion of sin. Don’t ask me how I know this.

 

[turtle18]

It depends on the individual. I cannot have a man that close to me without feeling some excitement, even in slow dancing (which I find more arousing than “bump & grind”). Therefore, it is best for me to abstain from dancing altogether until I am married.

 

[strngrnrth]

When two people press their private parts together and grind them, clothed or unclothed, that is a sex act. It might be unintentional, but in my book it is a sex act, not the imitation of one or reminder of one.

 

[HappyPerson]

Yes that dancing is definitely sinful. It is questionable whether music that is conducive to and specifically designed for that type of sexually charged dancing is sinful too, even if those songs don’t contain sinful lyrics.

 

[starchyp]

Pyrodude
It is dissapointing that the music we have today and the dance styles are so impure. I would certainly call it sinful, as it is lustful. Whether school is Catholic or not does not matter. In my Catholic school, at the school dances this is basically how everyone dances. Even when I go to all girls schools for a dance, its all “freak dancing” or “bump n grind.” I have, unfortunately,“freak danced” with girls. But I said to myself, its all lustful, for sex. How can this lead to love. So I stopped doing it. I want to find a girl who isn’t grinding on dudes hips, so I don’t do this dance. But it is difficult, given that music today is basically about sex, money, or pride.

 

[Argh]

Pyrodude
music today is basically about sex, money, or pride.

Sex, drugs, and Rock’n’roll!

Dance to more electronica and less hip-hop, that might work out better. That is, you don’t grind while dancing to techno! That would be weird…

Little bit of trivia: “Rock and roll” was a slang term for sex, but white society didn’t realize that until…well…you know the story!

 

[strngrnrth]

Little bit of trivia: “Rock and roll” was a slang term for sex, but white society didn’t realize that until…well…you know the story!

Rock’n’roll was a descriptive phrase, like jazz, blues and swing, for a quality that could be applied to many things, especially to sex, dancing or music. If some R&B music was on-key and on-beat but had “no rock and no roll” to it, that meant it wasn’t exciting, didn’t flow right, and didn’t do anything for a listener. If a sexual experience had “that rockin’ roll” it “rocked” you – that is, well, you get the idea. White society understood perfectly. When Allan Freed introduced a song saying, “This is rock and roll” he was complimenting the song, not naming a genre. It became an adjective that just meant good, danceable R&B with that country element that kicked it up a notch. Soon it was the name of a new style, taking R&B and certain branches of country and gospel and riffing on them elaborately. The original meaning of the word started to fade from awareness as the sound changed. When rock ballads and surf songs were al the rage, how was anyone to know what “This song rocks” meant several years before?

 

[HappyPerson]

In my Catholic school, at the school dances this is basically how everyone dances.

I would love to be a D.J. at a Christian youth dance. Every song would be Christian, yet entertaining to the youth. There has been so much great Christian music over the past 10-15 years, including by Catholics.

 

[Conservative]

I love to dance. Bump and grind - not.
But I once read somewhere that where there is dancing, the angels leave the room…Not an exact quote. But St. Theresa spoke about it, I believe. Which made dancing all the more a conscience problem for this dancer.

I think anything suggestive - even if not a bump and grind - is wrong - no matter how sinful. It’s not prudish - Our society has just lost sight - of everything that is good and holy, and we’re too good at justifying things that will suit us.

 

[dianaballein]

Yes that dancing is definitely sinful. It is questionable whether music that is conducive to and specifically designed for that type of sexually charged dancing is sinful too, even if those songs don’t contain sinful lyrics.

I disagree that dancing is sinful. Dancing is joyful. As with anything else, its up to us how we dance and we choose to react to it.

Psalm 149
149:3 Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.

2 Samuel 6
6:14 And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.

Ecclesiastes 3
3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

 

[strngrnrth]

I think dancing is good. By dancing I mean dancing. I think sexual acts with people other than one’s spouse are wrong, and if done in public, demeaning as well.
I will reiterate the old Abe Lincoln story that comes up so often. He reportedly once asked someone how many legs a dog has if you call a tail a leg. They said five. he said, o, four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one. Calling a sex act dancing doesn’t cause it to have any relation to dancing.

 

[dianaballein]

I think dancing is good. By dancing I mean dancing. I think sexual acts with people other than one’s spouse are wrong, and if done in public, demeaning as well.
I will reiterate the old Abe Lincoln story that comes up so often. He reportedly once asked someone how many legs a dog has if you call a tail a leg. They said five. he said, o, four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one. Calling a sex act dancing doesn’t cause it to have any relation to dancing.

Sexual acts? How did we get sexual acts out of dancing? Are we dancing nude? Are we fondling each other’s private areas? You lost me.

 

[strngrnrth]

Sexual acts? How did we get sexual acts out of dancing? Are we dancing nude? Are we fondling each other’s private areas? You lost me.

This thread is a response to a question about what the OP called “dancing” but described as people grinding their private areas against each other in a fashion that was considered a sex act by everyone I ever heard talk about it or mention it before about last year. To me, it still is and always will be one. Dancing is something totally different.

 

[surfinpure]

Sexual acts? How did we get sexual acts out of dancing? Are we dancing nude? Are we fondling each other’s private areas? You lost me.

I agree with strngrnrth. Pressing genitals together and gyrating – with our without clothes on – is a sexual act. It is not, nor should it be called, dancing. The fact that it happens to correspond with rhythm and music is irrelevant.

 

[JMBNH]

I’d say that kind of grinding is sinful, whether mortal or venial would depend on the intent involved, but something to be avoided all the same.

Normal dancing is fine, provided people don’t use it for lustful reasons and also provided it doesn’t lead to worse stuff (e.g. if someone is moving dancing closer and closer then do not go past slow dancing and if you know they’re moving it knowingly closer maybe stop before that

 

[dianaballein]

I’d say that kind of grinding is sinful, whether mortal or venial would depend on the intent involved, but something to be avoided all the same.

Normal dancing is fine, provided people don’t use it for lustful reasons and also provided it doesn’t lead to worse stuff (e.g. if someone is moving dancing closer and closer then do not go past slow dancing and if you know they’re moving it knowingly closer maybe stop before that

and as long as you don’t overthink it to death. Dancing should be something fun and enjoyable. If you are so focused on what MIGHT happen, it’s purpose is lost.

 

[chevalier]

There’s no need to do something which looks like sex.

As for slow-dancing, well, I don’t have a problem with it, but I’d feel odd about such close quarters with a stranger. I’m talking about a situation when it looks like hugging, not when it looks sexual, in which case look above.