Saturday night, May 15, 2004, was Lemoore High School's prom. As Lemoore principal Jim Bennett looked around the dance floor, he saw most of the guys dancing behind their dates, grinding their hips against the girls as the girls gyrated back against them. They were freak-dancing, which is how most people dance to hip-hop, but Mr. Bennett had always felt it was too sexual for a school event. "It's [the same as] foreplay," he says. During the last song of the night, a girl got on all fours and rubbed her butt against her date's groin. Mr. Bennett was horrified: That's it, he thought to himself, I have to stop this! So at the start of the next school year, he announced that freak dancing would be banned at all future dances. SELF-EXPRESSION At 9 P.M. on Saturday, December 11, Lemoore seniors Kelley Castadio and her best friend, KayDe Naylon, both 17, walked into their winter formal with their dates. All fall, Kelley and KayDe had been looking forward to their first senior formal. "Lemoore is a small town, and there's not much to do on Saturday nights," says Kelley. "So it's a big thing to have a dance." And dances, KayDe adds, are "one of our school's only traditions." At 9:30, the DJ put on Nelly's "Hot in Herre." Almost all of the 400 students on the dance floor immediately began freak-dancing—and Mr. Bennett walked right over to the DJ. "Stop the music," he said as he took the mic. "Ladies, gentlemen," he announced sternly, "if you continue freak-dancing, there will be no more dances." Some of the students booed Mr Bennett as he gave the mic back to the DJ, who turned the music up. But since KayDe, Kelley, and their friends had always danced that way to hip-hop music, they couldn't believe Mr. Bennett would carry out his threat—so they kept on freak-dancing. SCHOOL RULE On Monday morning, KayDe was at her school's career center when she noticed the weekly newsletter for the staff. "Freak dancing is ... obscene!" she read in Mr. Bennett's column. All dances were going to be called off, he had written, unless students came up with a plan to stop the freak dancing. "I couldn't believe that he was serious," KayDe says. "That's just how we dance—like my parents used to do the twist!" She and Kelley had been elected to plan the Sadie Hawkins dance in February, and if Mr.
Another scene that depicts the way some view of breakdancing and hip hop is when James has a party and he invites Ozone and Turbo, as well as Kelly. There are a lot of wealthy people there and when they see the two males from the trio, the looks on their faces turn into those of shock. Kelly’s former dance coach is also at this party, and when he finds out the grou...
They would dance contemporary to Holiday’s slower jazz songs, which were also her songs with the most serious stories told in them. Performing this style of dance helped to tell the story of hers songs. The dance truly helped to accentuate the message of the song “Strange Fruit.” This song describes the horrific lynchings that took place in the Jim Crow South. The contemporary choreography to this song showed the sadness and confusion that many people felt towards the lynchings. The dancers would come onto the stage in small groups of two or three, and I noticed many of them would do a slow, controlled grand battement followed by dropping their torsos to their feet when they brought their legs back down. They would then proceed to exit the stage, and be followed by the next group of dancers. When I watched this, I felt as though the dancers were showing the pain and despair that people felt before lynchings, and how they next lynching would happen soon
As stated in the book, “college students have much to teach about sex” (8). That is because the values, ideologies, and worldviews of the students are representative of greater American culture. Although flawed, hookup culture on American campuses hold the possibility of accepting a culture of inclusivity, care, pleasure, and freedom while also rejecting predatory behavior, racism, classism, and abuse. Dismissing hookup culture all together is blind to the reality that young adults are going to have sex, and since sex is non-negotiable, one’s aim should be to foster open dialogue and critical thought onto a future where everyone enjoys the ability to freely explore sexuality, sex, and gender on their own
Legendary jazz artist, Nina Simone, once said, “To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that 's not what I play. I play black classical music.” This quote perfectly embodies how the Cakewalk dance was treated during its dawning in the late 19th century. The dance was both praised and criticized by its observers. The Cakewalk started out as a way for African-American slaves to mock their masters and live in autonomy. But, quickly enough, the Cakewalk gained popularity and began to evolve into formal dance competitions where the winning couple would be awarded a large and ornate cake. The Cakewalk’s popularity was also a result of minstrel shows where white actors in blackface and poor black actors and actresses would
It was the first time I had ever been to a party. I had just graduated high school, and did not have nor ever did have any sort of interest in going to a party. One of my fellow classmates had invited me to her party on the night of graduation, and I decided why not? I was told growing up that I would never have contact with most of my classmates after graduation ever again, so I wanted to have one last fun moment with the graduating class of 2013. I arrived at my classmate’s house around nine, and immediately was overwhelmed by the makeshift dance floor in the backyard, the loud, unfamiliar music, and the disco lights. Growing up, I had never been introduced to rap music, so I did not enjoy it as much as my fellow classmates did. It did not take long for the party to get started. Boys and girls alike started to make their way to the makeshift dance floor, immediately dancing on one another. I was absolutely taken away as girls that I had known for four years bent over and began to press their backsides up against boys, grinding on the boys as if it were an everyday activity as degrading music blared out of the speakers, as if they were not aware of the actual lyrics of the song. I was not sure what made me feel sicker to my stomach: the way the girls moved their behinds in ways that I found impossible, which I later learned was called ‘twerking’, or the misogynistic rap music that my classmates danced to. I have not been to a party since then, and I do not think I ever will go to one again. It did not take me long to understand why my parents never let me listen to rap music before: it is this misogynistic, or a hatred towards women, type of music. Rap music clearly portrays women in several, negative ways, such as re...
This music video shows how relationships are defined in American culture and the interaction between genders during different stages of sexual contact. The text exhibits values that are demonstrated elsewhere, including withing Aftermath Entertainment. The text can be considered successful based upon its charting and work with a well known label.
Originating from the streets of Harlem comes a song that, initially, did not gain much fan fair, but went viral on the internet after comedian, Filthy Frank, made a ridiculous dance video of it (Knopper, 2013). Thousands of copycats created different version in unexpected environments such as skydiving or underwater(Allencastre, 2013). The song is called Harlem Shake by DJ producer, Bauuer. These videos popularized a underground, electronic, dance music (EDM) genre known as “trap”. A genre that attempts to bridge popular EDM synths with southern hip hop influences. Baauer evolves this genres by bringing a much more electric element to the sound so hip hop may not be a genre that comes to mind when listening to the track. This short essay will attempt to analyze this piece of music from an instrumental point of view by naming the different instruments used, discussing pitch. The paper will also discuss duration, tempo, timbre, dynamics, texture and silences at different parts of the song. Through its structure and mood, I will attempt to create a story and give meaning to this music. Indeed, overall, this music is a story that represents the prolonging, desensitized, gang warfare that infested the Harlem district of New York during the 1920s.
In today's society, students take a different approach to dancing at prom, homecoming, and the like, than was customary of the generations that preceded. Instead of the low contact, save-room-for-Jesus type of dancing our parent's did at their dances, teens are moving their bodies in the way of the infamous "twerk", and bumping and grinding, one skimpy dress away from full fledged intercourse on the dance floor. When I had the chance to witness one of these dances-turned-orgy, the only thing I could think was, "what makes them think this is okay?" If it was just instinct, it was one I certainly didn't have, and if their parents taught them, then society is worse off than I thought. However, neither of these are the reasons behind...
1962 New York Bishop Burke forbids Catholic school students from dancing to "The Twist." Burke considers R&B music, and its associated dances, to be lewd and un-Christian.
Dance has different definitions for each individual. For some it may symbolize beauty, perfection, and struggles amongst many others. The dance movement themselves can be executed in various ways (Ferrufino & Coubard, 2012). Not everyone performs the same exact way there are a variety of different ways to perform and that is what makes dance so special. From those precisely choreographed in advanced to those created on impulse or on the spur of the moment all dances require exploration and creativeness (Ferrufino & Coubard, 2012). Every person who watches choreography by Lizzie MacKenzie is probably surprised that she is not as well known as other choreographers (Nevin, 2013). However, she is identified as an exceptional dancer as well as for her many guest appearances in high profile social events (Nevin, 2013). She is also recognized as the founder and artistic director of Extensions Dance Company, which is one of the most successful and respected dance companies in the country (Nevin, 2013).
I find that people unconsciously categorize the dance into two parts: moves they think they can do, and moves they wished they could do.
“Call and response” is also utilized, which is when the DJ and the dancers will communicate in order to maintain a certain hip hop flow, and to encourage audience enthusiasm. The moves, along with the music works together to emphasize the rapid rhythm breaks. The dancers perform moves that involve flips, upside down movement, and spinning, along with “drops” that were smooth transitions to “front swipes, back swipes, dips, and corkscrews”.” One dancer even performs a “chair freeze” which was originally one of the most popular break dancing moves, and is when the arms and upper body support the body while the legs and lower half of the body are free flowing (Forman & Neal, 2012, pg. 58). These moves require much momentum and balance, which according to popular b-boy Ken Swift, is an essential aspect to this hip hop movement (Forman & Neal, 2012, pg. 59). In both films, b-boying or breakdancing is a way to resolve some type of conflict or competition due to being able to “attack without mercy yet still see their opponents as distinct and valuable human beings” and avoid any unnecessary violence that already occurs in drastic rates within inner city neighborhoods (Chang, 2006, pg.
John (Richard Gere) and Beverly (Susan Sarandon) Clark are comfortably married. They have two children, and he a good job as a lawyer. Yet, he is not ‘happy’. He fills the void in his life by impulsively shooting out of his commuter train seat up the stairs of Miss Mitzi’s Dance School after being captivated by Paulina (Jennifer Lopez) gazing out of the school window. A clumsy, shy, reluctant dancer at first, he taps a hidden side to his personality and blossoms into an accomplished ballroom dancer. All very well, except none of his family is aware of this chrysalis bursting open in this way.
Dance is my favorite hobby when I was a child. I used to watch dance concerts on TV shows, but I had not even watch it on stage. On April 08th, 2016, I attended a dance concert called Make Your Move like an audience. It was performed at John Anthony Theatre – Spring Creek Campus of Collin College. The concert consists of many styles of dancing from different College and University such as Collin College, West Texas A&M University, and Illinois State University. Three performances that I like best were Intus, 9.28.11 and Havana Dream.
As the song continued, Ron began to dance a bit around the stage – interacting with his guitarist, bassist and drummer individually. They were all smiling and laughing as they played and sang – not so much as to ruin the music, of course, but enough that you could tell these were people who truly loved music and that they get to do it living. Following that were performances of some of the other tracks from his most recent album (at the time), “Calling off the Dogs.” Then it happened: the beginning chords to my favorite song of all time, “Fireflies.” I lost the ability to breathe for a moment. As the song played, I heard other people singing along just as loudly as I was – it made my heart swell to know that other people loved this song just as much as I do. I don’t know why that surprised me, really – all throughout the night, the entire audience had been screaming the lyrics along with him and moving their bodies to the beat of the