Sometimes we need to recover both spiritually and physically through some form of leisure activity. For games and dancing to be allowed, they must be for relaxation, not out of inclination; briefly, and not until tiredness or exhaustion; and they must be only occasional. If someone makes it a rule, they turn fun into work.
Dance and play according to the circumstances, when it seems prudent and considerate to adapt and please the respectable company you are in, for adaptation is a branch of Christian love and makes good out of things not dissimilar, and permissible out of dangerous ones.
I was pleased to read about St. Charles Borromeo, that he was lenient with the Swiss in certain matters, in which he was otherwise quite strict; or that St. Ignatius of Loyola did not refuse to play cards when invited. And St. Elizabeth of Hungary danced and played, but it was not detrimental to her piety: it was so well rooted in her soul that amidst the vain splendor brought about by her position, it only grew... Great fires are fanned by the wind, while small ones, if not covered, go out.
(Francis de Sales /1567–1622/, Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 3, Chapters XXXI and XXXIV)
