Why don't Americans have a dance that defines part or our culture?

This is an excerpt from my thesis on why Americans don't dance anymore.

"In today’s world, other people are a threat and an obstacle to our personal ambitions (Ehrenreich, 2006). Although humans have evolved to be more highly social than any other primate species, capable of developing strong bonds to unrelated people, and enjoying pleasurable activities with large numbers of individuals, we now share our planet with over six billion other humans who are all competing for land, water, and oil. To be a socially focused individual these days seems naïve and careless, and it certainly doesn’t put a person on the fast track to success. Success in this sense is the achievement of financial security. Ehrenreich questions whether this problem with modern civilization is just a matter of scale. She notes that the rituals and festivities of indigenous people evolved to encourage living in larger groups, usually about a few hundred people at a time. With a group this size, everyone can hear the un-amplified music and interact with each other. Civilizations today, however, include hundred millions of individuals who are bound not by community or safety, but by economic, military, and legal dependency. French theorist Debord described ours as the “society of spectacle” which exists during “an epoch without festivals” (in Ehrenreich, 2006). Today, people don’t generate collective pleasures; rather they absorb, or consume, the spectacles provided them. Commercial entertainment, consumer culture, nationalist ritual, and advertisement after advertisement oozing the satisfaction of personal ownership, have replaced dance as a daily ritual. However, as Ehrenreich (2006) concludes, although these things may be true, they do not defeat the possibility of festivities surviving within large-scale societies. In 1790 Paris, entire cities were caught up in the Festival of Federation, and dancers lined up in the streets and into the countryside. Rock concerts sometimes last for days, with tens of thousands of people peacefully socializing and dancing. Carnival remains the largest event in Brazil. Based on these occurrences, it is therefore not impossible for dance and celebration to exist within Western Culture.
The daily price we pay for the emotional emptiness that exists within many of us throughout the majority of our lives, when there is no Woodstock nearby, is evident in the high rates of social isolation and depression (Ehrenreich, 2006). While not fatal on their own, those who have suffered from these conditions know it is no way to live. These conditions also increase the risk of suicide and many other debilitating and deadly diseases, including cardiovascular disease. The current state of the world is increasingly ominous, and not just because of depression. Of the almost seven billion people on the planet, half live in debilitating poverty. Epidemics spread faster than the plague. Global climate change and natural disasters devastate millions. However, we seem mostly paralyzed against action. We seem to lack the means or willingness to collectively organize for survival. Our self-serving agendas and drive for power have eroded the notion of the common good.
Insofar as we compress our sociality into the limits of the family, we do not so much resemble our Paleolithic human ancestors as we do those far earlier prehuman primates who had not yet discovered the dance ritual as a “biotechnology” for the formation of larger groups. Humans had the wit and generosity to reach out to unrelated others; hominids huddled with their kin (Ehrenreich, 2006, p. 254).
Our consumer culture encourages us to distract ourselves and deflect our desires into obtaining and displaying our stuff: cars, shoes, plastic surgery, all of which promise to make us more popular, less lonely, and perhaps invincible to what is happening to those in less fortunate situations. However, despite all of our ‘things,’ most people who can avoid addiction to entertainment, consumerism, and drugs ultimately arrive at the conclusion that something is missing from life. You can feel that hollow in your chest, though what is lacking is difficult to pin down. Spirituality and community are vague ideas attached to this space. Intellectuals cite the absence of strong connections with people outside our immediate families as the missing link in society. Regardless of what it definitely is, we occasionally get glimpses of its eagerness to return. We see carnivalized sports events, dancing religious pilgrimages, and music festivals pop up in unlikely places. It exists in situations where there is no point to it. It is the chance to acknowledge and celebrate the miracle of our shared existence.
The real benefits of dance lie not in the dance itself, but in what the act of dance creates. Through my research, I believe I can boil down the benefits of uninhibited dance to three words: communication, connection, and celebration. Dance communicates concepts and feelings to oneself and to others on a level that no other form of communication can. Dance allows one to connect all parts of themselves, all parts of their community, and all parts of their environment. Through dance, one can feel truly whole. Celebration is the openness to feeling joy and peace in any situation. Dance is the natural way to celebrate. Communication, connection, and celebration are three elements of life that seem to me to be severely lacking in American society.
I am not suggesting, as Ehrenreich (2006) might be, that dance is the solution to the personal quest for fulfillment or the solution to all the worlds modern problems. However, I do believe that Americans are united not by common culture, but by geography, and that being united in this way lacks commitment to the community. I believe that most American believe in the American government and society because it perpetuates the ideal of doing what is best for the individual rather than the community and provides the best way for an individual to achieve personal success. I love my country and I love the people in it. I believe we can all be better if we find a way to unite in a commitment to the union. America is defined by being the “melting pot” in which cultures mix and blend together. Being culturally diverse doesn’t mean that we can’t unite under something supra-cultural or that in uniting we would lose our cultural or personal uniqueness or values."

Works Cited
Ehrenreich, B. (2006). Dancing in the streets: A collective history of joy. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books.