Do you know where your groove is?

Hi neighbors. In case you have been vacationing in Florida the last few days, or haven't been outside all week, Baby it's cold outside! Don't get too worried though, because it never stays the same temperature long enough to become classified as 'normal.' The word normal is an adjective with two distinct meanings. One refers to being common and usual. The other refers to being sane or rational.

This one word can describe our environment as well as our view of it and in a way, its view of us.

The flip side, the word abnormal, has only objective definitions. Odd isn't it? That being 'normal' is determined by individuals themselves as well as by our society. Being abnormal is defined by a collective society's view of its individual members.

I wonder who determines the normal or abnormal definitions of entire societies? That is probably done by other societies -- by their own society's standards most likely.

For the past couple of weeks I've been watching a television show about international dance competitions. Unlike other dance competitions where all entrants dance the same dances and are judged by experts in each dance, this show has high-ranking professional dancers from different countries competing against each other.

The odd thing is, they are being judged by a panel of judges, with one judge from each country represented in the competition. These judges are themselves professional dancers or instructors and should know a lot about dancing.

However, I feel that knowing a lot about dances you are familiar with is a different set of knowledge facts than knowing all the technique standards of dances you have never seen before.

How can a judge who is an expert on one dance form, honestly judge a dancer doing a dance the judge knows nothing about? The answer is of course, they cannot judge in the normal manner of any competition dance judge. They must judge by general performance standards and rely a lot on their own reaction to the performance.

Each country has two solo routines, two pairs of dancers and one group dance routine.

So far they have had traditional dances from India, Russia, China, Australia, Argentina, Ireland and South Africa. These dances are supposed to best represent their country's history and current position.

India has so far done very traditional (as in ancient) dances. They have done fairly well.

China has stuck to Kung Fu type fighting dances, which started out pretty popular, but have lost their luster with the third performance.

South Africa has had a good balance of tribal dance and more modern dances.

Russia has had a group of men doing the traditional dance and a ballerina bringing down the house with her precise and delicate performances.

Argentina has pretty much stuck with doing tangos.

Australia has shown a lot of diversity with their dances. So far they haven't had any dances by indigenous tribesmen, but maybe they will.

Ireland stayed with their traditional 'River Dance' style and that was a big crowd pleaser -- and the judges liked most of the Irish performances as well.

The United States has had the most diversity of all -- but all modern dances. There was a solo dancer who did a dance called "popping" which I had never heard of before. He was a real crowd pleaser, though.

The United States also had a tap dancer who didn't come off so well, and showed a little bit of sour grapes when she lost. (Even the U.S. judge seemed displeased with that tirade.) The biggest boost to the USA team was the group dancers. A professional performing troupe did some great hip-hop and contemporary dance routines that had the audience on their feet.

There are still at least two or three of these shows to go if you are interested in learning a little about dance and a lot about how different cultures view each other. The show is called Super Stars of Dance and is aired on Monday nights.

It seems odd to me that the USA didn't have any rock n' roll dances.

I questioned my son about this and why he thought there was no Native Americans competing with some of their traditional dances.

He told me the rock n' rolling hippies were all too old to compete and the Native Americans had better things to do. But what's he know -- he understood what "popping" was all about.

Until the next time friends remember when it comes to dancing -- one person's normal might look pretty abnormal to someone else.