No Rooftop Dancing: My Christmas on the Hill

Last night was Seton Hill's seminal Christmas on the Hill, and event that really brings together the entire campus. I must say, Seton, you impressed me. Although I am one who loves this school very much, I am also a harsh critic of many of its practices, however I was blown away by the beauty of the evening and how well it was all executed.

I abstained from going to the dance last year, mainly due to my involvement with Deconstructing Santa. But this year, being able to schedule practices accordingly, I was able to attend.

I won't spend alot of time talking about the food, which was great, or the atmosphere, which was nigh-perfect. If you were able to go to the dinner/mass/dance then you already know how sweet it all was. Instead of talking on about all of that, I wanted to speak briefly on my thoughts regarding the actual dance that took place that evening... because it sure was interesting.

As I predicted in my Setonian cartoon there was a heavy amount of public intoxication. But I guess it makes sense, since I can't understand how sober people could dance to some of the songs they played. That's not to say I didn't get on the floor and shake my money maker, because I assure you I did when they played some of my favorite songs ("99 Problems" anyone?). But while dancing, and watching others dance, I came to this realization:

Organized dances are not my thing.

By organized I mean "line" and my thing I mean "I don't do them." People get in lines and take directions from these crazy men singing like they're doing a Shaggy lounge act. The funniest is that newer song with all the clapping, and the lefts and the rights. They really didn't put any thought into those lyrics did they? It's a no-nonsense line dance. At least Marcia Griffith's "Electric Boogie" has a point to the song-- warning everyone about this dangerous and unorthodox 'electric' slide-- but this guy is wasting everyone's time "to the left." Thanks, thanks for that.

I think the reason I hate line dances so much stems back to my TGIF days, days I'm finally reliving. Every time I see folks get into lines and start dancing to some upbeat R&B instructional tune I flash back to that fateful evening on Family Matters when Urkel took all of those kids on the roof and made them dance 'The Urkel.' I remember back to how ridiculous the Steve Urkel dance really was, and how it taught us all a valuable lesson when Urkel fell off the roof! It taught us to not do that dance.

Yeah, think about that next time you go to Christmas on the Hill.