Dancing in the Streets
A History of Collective Joy

Barbara Ehrenreich

Carnivale...Fiesta...Native American dance...Rock Concert...Sporting events...

For as long as mankind has been around, there have been festivals with music and collective movement. People need to gather to express joy and happiness. Music and dance are a natural way to do that. Ehrenreich gives a history of group celebrations and dancing throughout the ages.

Celebrations with food and dancing lead to a group behavior that may be different than just a few people. People tend to be less inhibited, allowing more joyful expression to come through. Politicians throughout the millennia have used group gatherings to help promote their beliefs and rule. Neighbors and towns and cities and states and countries have festival days. Ehrenreich studies how these gatherings affect the participants and how even suppression (for example the Calvinists in England) cannot completely quell the gathering, the movement, and the feelings.

Although she mentions dance and festivals around the world, much of the book centers on group celebration on the European continent. One reason, she maintains, is that it is the Europeans who tried to force their ideas on the rest of the world. And although she doesn't state it this way, much of that colonization time was while Europeans were trying to suppress dance and collective joy.

At times I found this book educational and enjoyable. At others I was just skimming, unable to get deeply into Ehrenreich's writing. There were parts I expected but missed (did I skim too lightly or wasn't it there?) like African or Native American tribal dancing. She did talk about the practices of the Maori in New Zealand, but this was in contrast with the suppression of movement and joy by the missionary Christians. At times the book is slow. Overall, this is an interesting history of group celebration, dancing, emotions, and the affects of group behavior.