Blogpost 2 : Chorophobia

Do you fear dance? Do you always reject someone’s invitation to dance? Do you not show up on school parties like homecoming parties, prom and graduation ball because of the dance part? Well you suffer on what they call CHOROPHOBIA.

Chorophobia is the unreasonable fear of dancing. It is somehow linked to fear of events in partaking to dancing. While others find themselves more expressive through dancing like when music plays their body can’t stop moving, there are some who suffer from it. They find dancing really uncomfortable because they care too much on how they look when they dance or at some point they have a history about it.

I have a friend back in high school who I know is a potential dancer. But when it comes to performing up on stage, or when someone asked him to dance in some parties, he feels a sudden tremble inside. It’s like he sweats and his heart was beating fast every time when someone asks him to dance. I asked why is that so. He told me a very tragic story when he was a kid. In grade school, he always joins dances in their school for extracurricular activities. One time, while he was in a middle of a dance, his pants fell off. The audience was in an extreme laugh seeing only his underpants while he dances. That’s why he fears dancing in public because he thinks that something might fell off again.

An article entitled “Chorophobia” in allaboutcounseling interests me on how the author defines Chorophobia as real and curable. It indeed gains hope to those out there suffering from it. One of the statements that really caught my attention is this:

“Chorophobia is difficult to understand for most people and, unfortunately, usually results in the teasing of the afflicted person for their abnormal social behavior. There is hope, though, as treatment methods have been successful in most cases and can be done individually or with professional help.”

I agree on how fear of dancing is completely hard to understand especially knowing me as a dancer. And it made me realize how teasing them because of their behavior really affects chorophobics deeply. This teasing is somehow creates a crack in their social behavior and it might fragment and lose his overall confidence to public. This will not only result to never dance at all but will result into social apocalypse. But in the positive part, it is curable and the person who is affected may undergo treatments or therapy.

Another article that is entitled “Fear of Dancing” in wikidance focuses on how dancing is something that we can learn to do and will help you overcome your fear in dancing. “The only people, who can dance, are the ones who were taught how. Everybody else is either afraid of dancing, or just happy to wiggle about and call it dancing. If you are one of those who are afraid of dancing there is good news… dancing is a learned skill, everybody can learn to dance.”  

Don’t hesitate yourself to dance. If you have a thing in the past, well forget about it. That’s why everyone says that “past is past.” We can start our new selves by just starting out as small. Just listen to some music. Try to move your fingers. Stomp your feet. Nod your head. Just remember that dancing is the movement of the body so when you move your fingers, feet and head; you are already dancing. Keep your hopes up. Just like coach Japheth Reyes would say: “Let go and let God.”