Influence of Dance

Dance has long been an art that is greatly admired both by people who can and cannot participate in it successfully. It has a beauty to it that is almost automatically admired by those who intimately understand its difficulty and those who watch in amazement as others make the moves seem so easy, yet attempts to imitate it often results in a few odd bumps and bruises. Though it is greatly admired, the styles and forms of dance have changed with time and one of the best places to see the continuing trends is when experiencing Seattle nightlife or attending various clubs in other urban areas.

Dance clubs have been featured in many films depicting the learning grounds of dancers recently. The atmosphere that the nightlife can provide often provides ample material for witnessing different styles and trying to implement adjustments of personal moves in reaction to responses from random and impersonal crowds. Even the classic movie Saturday Nigh Fever features the influence that nightlife can have on the success of a dance style.

It is interesting to note that as dance styles have evolved, it seems to have followed a progression from the joints closest to the floor, up the body and is now implementing full body contact and no contact with the dance floor surface. When older styles of dance are observed, the motion of the feet and the patterns they create are the focus of the movements. Flappers from the 1920’s, tap dancers and the basics of the ballroom style all center on the proper movement of feet. With the advent of Elvis, the knees became a more predominant feature that was used more widely. This continued as the twist grew in popularity and was seen in many different clubs and nightlife settings, even high school dances.

The hips garnered focus in addition to the knees during the seventies. Though they are an inherent part of being able to do the twist in the earlier years, the knees were still the focus of attention. During the seventies, the hips drew that focus with classic disco moves that made them an obvious feature. Large shoulder movements also began to be utilized more during the seventies and were often employed to accent the hip motions. This grew to the point where the shoulders and arms became the center of attention. Michael Jackson’s classic music video of Thriller is an example of the arms elements being the main feature of a dance. This continued in popularity in many forms, one of the most notably being the robot imitation that is still popular in many nightlife circles and clubs.

During the nineties, the joint being featured shifted to the neck and head banging surged for a brief period of time. Though it is still used in mosh pits, it quickly gave way to the beginnings of completely using and not using the dance floor surface of clubs. The caterpillar is a move that is a great example of completely using the dance surface area, while the YMCA jumping that could often be seen in clubs was the beginning of using more moves that were completely off of the dance floor itself. These moves have increased in use and popularity through break dancing and increasingly difficult hip hop moves. Some of these spurts were augmented by whole body dances such as the Macarena or Chicken Dance, but these prescribed motions never really took hold. The predominant feature of modern dance and forms being seen in night clubs is the use of moves that completely take the dancer off of the floor. This has even been used in ice skating, where no hand flips are a feat to behold. The difficulty and complexity of dance moves continues to evolve as more movements that are independent of the dance floor are incorporated into the styles being performed.