To not want to be dragged onto the dancefloor

[balletnotlacrosse]

Despite my username I am a very self conscious dancer and prefer, at parties and weddings, to sit around chatting and drinking. Some people though seem to be absolutely convinced that anyone who isn't up dancing isn't enjoying themselves or is being a party pooper, and go around trying to drag reluctant people up onto the dance floor.

AIBU to start a thread stating that if people want to get up and dance they will, and if they don't then just leave them bloody alone

"I wonder do these 'dance floor draggers' realise the upset, embarassment and humiliation they subject people to with their insistence on forcing people to get up and dance when they quite clearly don't want to."

Honestly? I think they do realise.

And they either get off on the power to humiliate ( IhavenevermetAnthonyHead's fireman and everyone who uses the word 'boring') or they're just so 'zilla' about an event appearing to conform to their fantasy ( PaperclipJunkie's mother of the bride) that they don't see they're destroying any chance of it.

Either way a 'fuck off' is justified.

I once went to a 'dance' themed wedding. The bride was a dance teacher and all the songs were choreographed .
Macarena - check
YMCA - check
Dancing Queen - check
That Saturday Night song - was it Whigfield?
It was just buttock clenchingly awful.

My idea of hell.
Right up there with parties where the host tries to organize people into play party games when really, people mainly want to stand around or sit around and and talk and drink.
We don't want to play bloody stupid GAMES!or dance^

I hate this. If I'm in the mood to dance, I will do so.

I loathe dancing. It's utterly ridiculous. Some folk will agree with me, others won't. Therefore, at any function where the prospect of dancing is likely to rear its head, all that is needed is mutual respect and courtesy (provided they haven't been nullified by alcohol). When 'yes' means 'yes' and 'no' means 'no' then there is no need for unpleasantness.

I never thought I'd see the day when I said this, but the only time I'm happy to dance is at a wedding etc when there is Scottish country dancing! The steps are set, and I do actually know them for the majority of dances now. The dance floor is guaranteed to be fit to burst for a Gay Gordon's, Dashing White Sergeant, Strip the Willow, Canadian Barn dance etc
As for discos, for as much as I love music, especially if it's cheesy, I'm the one sliding under the table if anyone looks like they're going to try to get me on the dance floor-absolutely detest it

Scottish country dancing even worse than discos for me! My mum and dad are real enthusiasts and used to drag me to barn dances (we live in Southern England so very few ceilidhs, but parents go to a club) as a reluctant pre-teen and have successfully put me off for life. We holiday in Scotland together every year and Mum tries to get us to go to ceilidhs, tried once, never again. I've been to one or two weddings with ceilidhs that have had very few participants too, I do think it's a mistake having them at English weddings.

My blood runs cold when I think back to a family member's wedding in France. It was decreed that the women should rehearse a dance for the men and a curtain pulled across the room. Being early pregnant, grumpy, deprived of alcohol and edible food, I couldn't really get into the spirit of things.
As the curtain went back, I winked at an obliging wine waiter, dived under the (draped with long cloth) table he was stationed at and only came out once the display had finished and the coast had cleared.
So horrifying was the thought of having to dance I'd have actually preferred it if they'd
caught me emerging and decided I'd been blowing the rather attractive waiter!