dance to a new tune

present singular third person dances to a new tune · participle present dancing to a new tune · participle past danced to a new tune · past danced to a new tune

1. To significantly change one's opinion, attitude, or behavior.

   We must ask God to give us strength to dance to a new tune.

   2005, Louis Adams, Diary of a Shattered Spirit, →ISBN, page 46

   3 more examples

   Policy was to be bold, not timid; campaign promises were to be carried out, not cynically shelved; and the public service would dance to a new tune, one where the ministers called the tune.

   1991, J. L. Granatstein, Robert Bothwell, Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy, →ISBN, page 207

   As a result, the Japanese found themselves having to dance to a new tune and it was one they were scarcely familiar with.

   2008, Ian Nish, The Iwakura Mission to America and Europe: A New Assessment, →ISBN

   I can make neutrons dance to a new tune, but I shrink from telling a human tick to fasten onto someone else.

   2011, Bob Shaw, The Peace Machine, →ISBN

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dance, new, tune.