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The Philosophy of Dancing on Bars

August 31st, 2009

Last week, all my free time was consumed by improv/theatre side projects.  This week, I’ve got nearly nothing after work.  It gives me time to reflect on the real reason I spend my free time doing this hobby:  going to philosophically sound after-show parties.

To illustrate what I’m talking about, let us discuss the topic of dancing atop bars.

When dancing atop a bar, many ladies draw from the a school of thought I refer to as ‘Faux-Stripper’.  A wildly individualistic school, Faux-Stripper focuses on hair flips, slinking, and moves that call attention to various body parts.  Philosophically, the school is depressing.  It can be thought of as a meat-sales technique for use in a zero-sum environment.  Devotees of the school who find themselves simultaneously bar-dancing are, by definition, in cutthroat competition with each other for attention.  The ‘winner’ is the one who garnered the most attention for later use as social capital.  Sure, some people may be more skilled in the school than others, much as some used car salesmen may be more skilled than others.  It doesn’t make the ‘thought’ behind the ‘craft’ any more dignified.

The female cast members  of an Improv Troupe, on the other hand, veer towards collaborative improvised choreography when dancing on the same bar.  The focus shifts from individual self-sales to cooperation.  The goal of the cooperation?  To make something interesting happen.  In this context, ‘interesting’ means just about anything the Improv devotees wish, up to and including a Kaufmann-esque inversion of expectations (which I would call nega-sexuality).  This has the advantage of being infinitely more amusing, and being philosophically sound.

I say philosophically sound because improv bar dancing finds itself free to break away from an inherently sexist architecture, as the goal is self defined, and not necessarily getting people to notice that you have any given body part.  It also breaks from the zero-sum mentality adopted by the FS school, and proves that collaboration, specialization, and a plurality of actors provide a superior experience.

Now, at this point it may seem to you that I’ve just conflated some aspects of modern economic thought with different approaches to dancing atop a bar.  To this I say:  damn right I did. To me, one of the  background insights that underpins ‘The Wealth of Nations’ and other modern (vs medieval) economic thought is that life is not a zero sum game, except on very small scales.   Seing anyone challenging the notion that any given game is zero sum makes me HAPPY, even when the challenge is taking place on top of a bar in Hermann, MO at 12:30 AM.

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