Alexei Sayle’s latest podcast has a crack at explaining basic Marxist theory through a Tik Tok dance. Its an innovative way to address the issue but has Sayle got the right Marxist dance line?
A search through the 50 volumes of Marx and Engels Collected Works reveals numerous references to dancing, not however mostly by either Marx or Engels.
However writing to his sister Marie in September 1840 we find that Engels is taking dancing lessons with a view to making his dance moves more ‘graceful’. Does Alexei Sayle’s Tik Tok dance fit the criteria? Perhaps a meeting is required…
Sept. 19, 1840. You have a more boring life than we do.
Yesterday afternoon there was no more work to do, and the Old
Man was out, and Wilhelm Leupold did not show up often either.
So I lit a cigar, first wrote the above to you, then took Lenau’s
Faust from my desk and read some of it. Afterwards I drank
a bottle of beer and at half past seven went to Roth’s; we
went off to the Club, I read Raumer’s Geschichte der Hohenstaufen
and then ate beefsteak and cucumber salad. At half past ten I
went home and read Diez’s Grammatik der romanischen Sprachen
until I felt sleepy. Moreover, tomorrow is Sunday again and
Wednesday is a day of penance and prayer in Bremen, and so we
carry on gradually into the winter. This winter I shall take dancing
lessons with Eberlein so as to accustom my stiff legs to a little
graceful movement
Leave a Reply