> Matthew Katinsky of Madison, Wisconsin, is trying to get as many ways of
> saying the expression, "Shut up and dance!" Matthew is a dancer in
> Wisconsin. However, he only has two languages listed as native American
> languages. He said that ANY LANGUAGE IS FINE, no matter how obscure or
> remote. He's encouraging natives to send in their translations in
> whatever language they are familiar with. (ie. Inuktitut, Cree, Ojibway,
> Apache etc,etc.) So far, Mat has 77 languages, of which 2 are american.
> Remember the expression is,
> "Shut up and dance!"
> (You need not take "Shut up" literally. Anything that means "Close your
> mouth", or something related is fine.)
I can't see where this slogan makes any sense with any Native American
conception of dancing or manners that I've ever run into. You might get
away wih "Dance listening," or "Dance quietly," but I don't think that's the
idea.
On a related subject, I am from the culture where "Shut up and dance!" makes
some sort of bizarre sense, so I may not be the best judge, but does the
conceptualization of dancing in the (fictional) name "Dances with Wolves"
seem inherently "European" or "white" to others, too? That is, it involves
the idea of couples dancing, which exists, but I think only as an modern
introduction.
John Koontz