There are shortcuts to happiness and dancing is one of them!

Happiness, the quote suggests, doesn't always have to be reached by the long road of achievement, good circumstances or solved problems. Sometimes the body can get you there in three minutes. Dancing works as a shortcut because it pulls attention out of worry and into rhythm, breath and movement, where it is hard to brood. The word "shortcuts" is modest, too. It doesn't promise lasting contentment, only a quicker way to a real taste of joy.

The idea echoes a very old human habit, found in village celebrations and ritual dances around the world, of treating joy as something done with the body, often together, rather than merely thought about. It also suits Vicki Baum, the Austrian-born novelist best known for Grand Hotel, who wrote popular, warm-hearted stories about ordinary people's longings. The line is widely credited to her, though I know of no firmly cited source for it.

A person could apply it on a draining weekday evening. Instead of collapsing onto the sofa with their phone, they could put on one favorite song in the kitchen and dance through it, badly if need be. It costs nothing, needs no talent, and often changes the mood of the whole evening.