The Methodists are No Damn Fun

It has come up time and time again in our study of the early republic up until the 19th century that dancing was considered a gateway sin. Julia Foote recounts her last encounter with dancing with this experience: "The last time I made a public effort at dancing I seemed to feel a heavy hand upon my arm pulling me from the floor. I was so frightened that I fell; the people all crowded around me, asking what was the matter, thinking I was ill. I told them I was not sick, but that it was wrong for me to dance. Such loud, mocking laughter as greeted my answer, methinks is not often heard this side the gates of torment, and only then when they are opened to admit a false-hearted professor of Christianity."

She says that David danced, but he danced for the glory of the Lord, not for vain things such as fun. Yet the Victorians danced, everyone dances. How can something as universal as dancing be seen as something sinful? If Edwards, Foote, or Whitefield saw how the youth dance in clubs today, I think it might make their cases a little stronger. However, this seems to be something understood at the time, but not discussed in detail. Is there a record somewhere of how this idea came to become so mainstream within the protestant denominations? Last week it was drinking, now we come yet again to the problem of dancing. If you can't drink and you can't dance, how is one supposed to let off any steam in 19th century America and it not be a sin?

https://youtu.be/mgS5I2UrW74?t=1m3s