Dancing in the Streets

One of the great joys I experience when I visit China is the local people dancing and playing music in public.  I guess in part it is because there is a big population and probably not enough halls/venues to go around, but I think it is more than that.  I often wonder why it is that here in Australia we seem to want to only have our activities indoors - when it is so much healther to be outside.

I was pleased to learn that in Beachmere on Fridays (weather permitting) line dancing will be held in one of the parks in the morning.  Nice idea.

I can recall on previous visits to China that there were many places I visited where dancing was taking place, and while my visit this time was much shorter I still managed to see public (for fun) dancing.

On the night before I was to depart China I was in Nanjing Road, the famous mall or Walking Street that leads from the People's Square to the Bund and there in the midst of the upmarket shops a couple were dancing.  I recall on a previous visit a building near the People's Square had a band on a platform above the street and groups of people were dancing.  Now you may be able to guess from the photo - but it was not traditional Chinese dancing - it is ball room dancing.


Another popular place for dancing is under bridges - many bridges have wide walkways and these are the venues for many a dancing - line dancing, ball room dancing or whatever.  The Chinese are also good walkers and will walk around their parks until late at night.  

A Chinese friend said they are never afraid as there are so many people doing the same thing - it is not like here in Australia where you might be the only one walking in a park at night - easy for predators.

I had asked friends about dancing in parks like this, but was told that the copyright laws relating to use of music in public places make it a little hard to do this in Australia, which is a shame.  We have the climate, and I am sure many folk would love an informal dance in a park sometime.  Can anyone organise something like this?



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