Singing vs. dancing

To me, singing is more embarassing than dancing.  I'm clumsy and generally uncoordinated but I know how to move in time with the music and I know the limits of my gross motor skills.  I can deal.  But I just don't have a nice singing voice; I can sing in tune and maybe with some (intensive) training I could become a passable singer.

But which of the two is more embarassing? On the one hand there dance clubs in which the house lights are low and different colored lights and strobes go off to create a cool effect and make your dance moves look electric, no matter how much you're actually moving.  And there's alcohol to drink, and probably some other drugs that can be obtained to create a more heightened experience of dance.  On the other hand, karaoke bars are also wildly popular and feature lights and alcohol so that people are less inhibited to potentially make fools of themselves.  Both require a certain amount of familiarity with music and how it is structured.

You don't have to have a particular body shape to dance well, but you have to know how to move yourself in a way that is visually striking and not too strenuous.  If you put a lot of time into dancing and choreographing routines you burn a lot of calories and it's likely that your body will become more toned and muscular.  Dancing isn't something that is usually taught at school; physical education focuses on strength and athleticism, which can definitely help to make one a better dancer but to dance you have to learn the moves.

Music, on the other hand, is pretty much mandatory at school.  Few can actually sing it well but we all learn how to sing the national anthem in school and have to take music classes.  In high school there was an arts requirement and many students who weren't really into fine arts opted for the mixed chorus, which had no audition requirement.  It's really easy to fake singing when in a chorus; if you dance in a group, though, you really have to know your stuff because it's blatantly obvious if you don't.

I think I just convinced myself that dance is generally more embarassing.  But personally, if it were a matter of life or death to either sing or dance I'd chose the latter.  Would I live? Maybe.