I’m really pleased by the popularity of the new show, “Glee.” Someone figured out that musicals aren’t just suitable TV viewing for high schoolers, and that you could fuse the appeal of “So You Think You Can Dance” and “American Idol,” add a script, and make a hit show. Bout time.

Because a some of us grew up smitten with Broadway stars, equating romantic allure with Robert Goulet crooning “If Ever I Would Leave You” and Yul Brynner doing a bare-chested polka to “Shall We Dance?” We had crushes on the guys in our school that got cast as The Student Prince or Oklahoma’s Curly. We fantasized about doing a romantic duet of “Tonight” with our own handsome Tony, like in “West Side Story.”

Broadway musicals made a huge impact on my personal romantic sensibilities, and even eventually shaped my erotic “vocabulary.” As I grew older, I integrated elements from other musical genres as well: sexy performances by rock stars such as Rick Springfield, and scenes from classic music videos like “Thriller.” What emerged was my conviction that singing and dancing can be perhaps the most potent expressions of sexuality we humans possess.

Unfortunately, it’s not easy to write about those expressions. I tackled the challenge in my 1998 novel The Resurrection of Captain Eternity when I made the hero a member of a rock band who also did musical community theater. To the heroine of the book, his performances had a powerful romantic impact. But how do you describe a voice, or stage movement, to convey its sexual power?

The challenge intensified when I wrote Looking on Darkness, which I released earlier this year. One of the four lead characters possesses an astonishingly beautiful voice that eventually allows him to seduce the heroine via song. I pulled out all the adjectives and metaphors in that book! I did my best, but there was no way to put in words how one would feel in the same room with a flesh-and-blood version of John Winter.

Still, it’s easier for me to write about song than dance, perhaps because I have a fair amount of vocal performing experience but can barely dance at all. Still, what romance writer hasn’t striven to write about dancing from time to time? One such scene in my repertoire took place in my Regency novella “Verity of the Vampyre,” in which the heroine waltzes with the mysterious Mr. Wellsley and is convinced he is overwhelming her with supernatural power. Very fun to write, but I felt I couldn’t quite do it justice. Not like that wonderful passage about the dance where Elizabeth Bennet hostilely but erotically engages with Mr. Darcy.

Difficult to do, but try I must. Music is just so essential to sex and romance.

I was reminded of this in a recent episode of “Glee.” Matthew Morrison, the Broadway star who portrays glee club coach Will Schuester, got to do an extra measure of singing and dancing. By the time he was done with “Bust a Move” and “Thong Song” I was in what could be fairly termed “quite a lather.” He has the voice to make a woman’s heart flutter, and the dance moves that have a similar effect, only lower.

I observe a character like that and simply long to capture him on paper. If only it weren’t such a challenge to do justice to sex and song and dance!

Oh, and one more thing I need to mention this month: the long-awaited sequel to Bloodchained, Bloodchained 2: The Secret of Secrets is now available! Please visit www.bloodchained.com to learn more.

Diana Laurence's popular new book, How to Catch and Keep a Vampire: A Step-by-Step Guide to Loving the Bad and the Beautiful was released in September. She is also the author of the Soulful Sex anthologies of erotic romance fiction, and the vampire romance series Bloodchained (www.bloodchained.com). Visit her at www.dianalaurence.com or enjoy her blog at www.eroticawithsoul.blogspot.com.