You Can Dance To It

Last night's live concert from the Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival, broadcast on WCLV 104.9, revealed that you can dance to Bach.

We have a small video monitor in the broadcast booth. You can make out shapes on stage, but not faces.

During the Cantata BWV 105, it looked as though members of the Baldwin-Wallace Motet Choir were being blown back and forth by a strong wind. Further examination revealed that they were swaying to the music. Really swaying. They were almost doing "the wave."

A choir member afterward explained that the swinging and swaying had the blessing of choral director Dirk Garner, and the Bach Festival Music Director, Dwight Oltman, who were described as being "joined at the hip" in their approach.

Can you imagine how the "Rate A Record" feature of "American Bandstand" might have changed the course of pop music history if a 45 of, say, "Komm, Jesu, Komm," elicited the reaction: "You can dance to it."