I would like ti bring this discussion down to earth.

Is there any dance you can think of that might not be sinful?
You probably can't name one.
Is anyone dancing that today?
No.

So when someone asks you is dancing sinful you say: almost every dance is sinful.

We are talking of course about mixed dances which are basically all dances.

If  you want to lean left and right in your room and call that a dance nobody is talking about that.

Until someone actually cites the papal teaching to show the actual nuance about what type of dancing, this discussion is mere navel gazing.

This accusation of gnosticism has grown quite fashionable these days.

Do you perchance dance occasionally?

.

Yes, obviously. We're talking about something people do. The conversation we're having now is like someone posting a sermon saying that drunkenness is a sin, and someone brilliant sophist pipes up and says, "Not necessarily! If you were a sailor on a 17th man-of-war and your leg got shredded by a load of grapeshot and needed to be sawed off with a hacksaw, you would be given a huge amount of whisky by the ship's surgeon to make you pass out so you wouldn't go flying off the operating table when he started sawing off your leg. Therefore it is not true to say that drunkenness is always a sin." Okay boomer.

Where does it say any of these engaged in dances with a member of the opposite sex?

And I think the OT people were held to a lower standard than us. If you read the Bible, you will see the OT just are much less impressive than New Covenant saints.

... To me it speaks to a certain frivolity, and the motions of the body seem to draw one's mind and nature down toward the carnal, the animal, and the material world...

Saint Francis de Sales wrote a great chapter on dancing in his book Introduction to the Devout Life:

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"St. Francis de Sales On Dancing

Taken From - Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III. Ch.33



In themselves, dances and balls are indifferent things. However, in actual practice they tend strongly toward the side of evil, and therefore are dangerous.

People dance at night, and in darkened rooms. This favors certain familiarities. People stay up late and this results in their rising late the next day, causing the morning to be wasted. Consequently, they miss opportunities of serving God. Is it not foolish to turn night into day and day into night and to replace useful work with frivolous pleasure? Finally, at balls everyone tries to outdo everybody else in vanity, and vanity is favorable to the evil affections and dangerous loves which dancing so easily spawns.

Philothea, what physicians say about mushrooms or pumpkins I say about dances: The best of them are not worth much! However, if you must eat pumpkins, be careful how they are prepared, eat only a little of them, and that rarely. In the same way, if you cannot give up going to balls, be careful how you dance, doing so with modesty, dignity and the right intention. Attend balls rarely, because no matter how carefully you conduct yourself at them, there is danger of excess in them, by becoming too attached to them.

Because they are spongy, mushrooms are said to attract the surrounding rot. The same is true of balls and other such night-oriented gatherings. They usually attract sin: quarrels, jealousies, mockery; sensual loves. These activities open the pores of the heart to be poisoned by some loose word or some folly or some wanton glance of love. Yes, Philothea, such amusements are usually dangerous. They scatter one's spirit of devotion, weaken one's strength and chill one's charity. They awaken countless evil affections in the soul. Because of all this, use them with great caution.

After eating mushrooms, one is advised above all to drink some good wine. I personally advise you to think some holy and good thoughts after a ball. These will counterbalance the bad impressions you may have received there.

What are some such holy and good thoughts? While I was dancing, some people were burning in Hell for sins committed at dances or occasioned by their dancing. While I was dancing, monks, nuns and other fervent Christians were chanting God's praise and contemplating His beauty, thus using their time far more profitably than I was. While I was dancing, many souls departed from this world in great anguish; thousands were suffering dreadful pains in hospitals... While I was dancing; the time of my earthly life was hurrying by and death was approaching nearer. See how he mocks and invites me to his dance! In that dance I shall take but one step from this life to the next."