Last night I attended a performance of a band and singers at a restaurant’s live music night. The material was mostly, though not all, covers of late Sixties and early Seventies hits by bands like Chicago and Spiral Staircase. The instrumentalists were professional (I missed the drums) and the vocalists as well; it was a veteran group of artists, and the audience was about the same age—I’d guess an average of 65 or more.
Almost from the beginning, one of the patrons at a table up front, stood and danced to whatever song was being played or sung. From my vantage point, you couldn’t watch the band or the vocalists without seeing her. Let me be clear: she was amazing, if repetitious. She danced hard: I wondered if she might have been a cage dancer when she was younger. I’d estimate that she was in her sixties, but she could have been younger. Her endurance was amazing. The band played for three hours, and she was up and doing her Joey Heatherton impression almost the entire time.
She made herself part of the show. I asked some of the singers if they knew the woman, and they did not, but expressed their admiration and said they were pleased that she “was having a good time.”
Fact: If I had been the director of the show or the manager of the restaurant, I would have told the woman to sit down or, if she had to dance, to do it at the back of the room rather than in front of the band.
Your Ethics Alarms Ethics Quiz of the Day is…
Was it ethical for the woman to impose herself on the performance regardless of how impressive her own performance was?
I’ve already made it clear what my position is, and it is unshakeable. The audience is the audience, the performers are the performers. As an audience member, I don’t want to be distracted from the performers by members of the audience, and it doesn’t matter how interesting, talented or impressive the exhibitionists may be. I would also object to an ostentatious audience member if I were performing, and in this case, I feel that the management should have intervened and told the woman to indulge her fantasies from her seat.
I take some satisfaction in knowing that the dancing woman probably can’t move without screaming in pain today…
Ethics Alarms 
Context matters.
At a wedding, the band is there to entertain and facilitate dancing. At a large concert, the musicians are there to entertain, but dancing is probably acceptable, as it is not a significant distraction.
In your case, dancing was not the point AND it was a distraction. At a big concert, the musicians are typically elevated on stage and are not obstructed. Here, you were not there just to listen, but to see.
She interfered with the ability to others to enjoy the experience. It was rude, selfish and inconsiderate.
-Jut
Spot on, Jut.
Unethical. There are too many people with Main Character Syndrome who believe the world revolves around them. The audience came to see the musicians, but an attention seeker (is whore too strong?) can’t help but insert themselves in other’s situations.
A more difficult question is what should you do if you were a spouse/friend/companion of hers at the table.
If she were a go go dancer in the sixties she would be in her late seventies now. I have seen a few women do the same thing at various events but they were not really a distraction and they were band followers. I think Jut makes the requisite logical argument in this case.