So You Think You Can Write Dance?

Have you ever tried to write a description of a person or a couple dancing? It's much more difficult than it sounds!

My imagination set out to bite off more than I could chew when I decided to write a sensual dance scene, and I wrote myself into a literal corner.

I last left my character in a nightclub, following the object of her attraction onto the dance floor. What was supposed to follow in the subsequent episode was the two of them dancing.

This proved to be the most challenging writing I have ever attempted.

Writing erotica is easier than describing the sensory experience of dance. Yet, what is dance but a joining of bodies. A foreplay, if you will. And that is how I had to eventually approach it.

Dancing is the closest thing to making love without taking off your clothes.

When you write dance, you cannot focus much on the technical. The only people who want to know about the steps are people who are teaching themselves dance.

Instead, you must focus on the feelings. The emotions the character is feeling, and hints of the motions- trailing the hand down the spine, the comforting weight of the other against them, the feel of the music pounding through the body. Focus on the magic of the moment, the exhilaration of the dance; the security of being held in his arms. The breathlessness from both the moves and the lust.

Write what your character sees- the look of lust in her eyes; the disco light dancing a thousand points of color over the crowd. How the rest of the people melt away as they only see each other...