Sunday, April 25, 2010

Do the Boogie Woogie...

I like to think I am especially skilled in the art of dancing.  Not in a technical sense of course.  I'm more of a "in the moment" dancer, when that beat reaches straight for your heart strings and you just gotta move to the rhythm (or not, as the case may be- i.e. most Caucasian males).  Like any true groover I have my staple moves that can be altered to suit the music of the moment- two step, hand clap, head wiggle, the box step, Saturday night fever and obviously the crowd favourite- the twirl.  Since my obsession with zumba, I have added a few choice moves to my repertoire, however seeing as I have not quite mastered them just yet these are restricted to my own personal dance parties in my bedroom.  Also, there is definitely a sense of latin sensuality in some zumba moves and my puritanical dance routines (G rated) do struggle to incorporate the booty shakes and body rolls.

There have been some great moments of dance captured in television and movies too (by this I mean like aside from my own personal memories of my great moments of dance).  I particularly enjoy the moment in Dirty Dancing when Johnny is teaching Baby how to dirty dance and then he spins her around and unwittingly she continues to groove for that awkward 5 seconds until she realises he's not there!  So good! Watch for the totally "lost in the moment" head nodding at about 1.28
Johnny teaching Baby to dance - stupid youtube won't let me embed!

On the topic of dancing and youtube, check this new dance movement out below.  Known as Jerkin' it's like a tame version of krumping I guess, but it has more James Brown than Chris Brown going on.  Apparently it originated in California and is part of the rise of the geek-esque cool movement (think: Pharrel and Kanye as opposed to more gangster influences) and is a cultural phenomenon in the States.  It looks super cool, though I doubt I'd have either the agility or co-ordination to ever pull anything like this off!  The kids chat in this vid for a wee while so best to skip straight to around 1.18 to actually see what they're up to!


Also, as a last self indulgent video, the star of this is a personal hero of mine.  Another friend and I spent the greater part of last years study leave watching all of this girls posts.  Can you imagine being 12/13 and just rocking this stuff out on youtube?  I love how she creates her own strobes with some choicely timed flicking of her light switch.  O-some! (youtube again fails me on the embedding front!)

I hate to think what I might have done had I had access to youtube as a child; Bette Midler's "Going to the chapel", me, Mums white sheets, routine moves, coffee table as a stage and an occasionally tuneful voice at high volume... I'll just let that soak in for you all!

Happy Anzac Day (i don't know if happy is quite the right word... but you know what i mean!)
x

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