Homecoming

Is a traditional fall dace welcoming alumni back to school.  Usually takes place in the fall and  in secondary and higher education.  The tradition dates back to the 1890’s with multiple schools claims to its origin.  

Watching a Homecoming dance in 2021 looks as such.  Like kids were back, ‘home’.  It is really quite stunning to watch.  I’m not talking about the tomfoolery that accompanies high school dances, I am just talking about the dance itself. A hundred plus kids packed on a common surface- not waiting for the DJ’s cues- until the beat drops.  As if rehearsed, the mob of kids simultaneously drop to the ground, then pop back up again- as in a choreographed frenzy.  

You don’t need a year of covid to feel the need to release energy, but I think this years dance was particularly appreciated.  Coming home- to be at one.  Eyes closed you can feel the synergy.  It was an eloquent purification act.  A cleansing.  Certainly a much different energy dispersed than kids sitting numbly in a desk.

Homecoming may be another antiquated tradition in high schools.  Dances were often held to betroth women.  The “marry em off young” attitude is a tad dated, but the fundamental need to move is hardwired and integral to humanity.  The kids genuinely looked cathartic.  Dancing is a natural antidepressant.  Side effects include: contentment, joviality, and bliss.  No pill necessary.

I.School will not host homecoming.  Dance will be its own course and courses.  From an early age kids naturally dance.  Kids will dance while eating a carrot.  Kids love to move creatively.  That is until ‘silly movement’, dance, is eliminated and shamed out of them.  It’s difficult to keep an assembly line productive when workers are shuffling their feet, and happy-er. 

I’m not going to attach a bunch of statistics and data to show the psychological and physiological benefits of dance.  It’s common sense.  It’s healthy, it’s natural and it’s free (which is probably why we don’t do it more). It’s not ‘profitable’.  The benefits are solely for kids well being.  I.School is potentially a coming home.  Home of the self.  The “I” of the dance. 

Bottom Line: Kids just gotta dance!! 

**oh, and a special thank you to those mystery students for showing me some of your sweet dance moves!  It was time well spent indeed.