dance to a new tune

dance to a new tune (third-person singular simple present dances to a new tune, present participle dancing to a new tune, simple past and past participle danced to a new tune)

1. To significantly change one's opinion, attitude, or behavior.
   • 1991, J. L. Granatstein & ‎Robert Bothwell, Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy, →ISBN, page 207:

     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.

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

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

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

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

   • 2011, Bob Shaw, The Peace Machine, →ISBN:

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

2. Used other than with a figurative or idiomatic meaning: see dance,‎ new,‎ tune.