Can Ballroom Dancing Stop Anyone from Freak Dancing?
Grinding was once the dance at dance clubs, but thanks to music videos it became popular with teenagers. The moves are so easy to do that even a preschooler can learn them. Of course, parents, teachers, and other concerned people are fed up with it because it simulates sexual intercourse.
There are solutions to discourage freak dancing. One extreme measure is to cancel future dances when students continue to dance dirtily at one. Another sensible way is to have them wear wristbands to be cut off when they dance inappropriately or to have them sign a contract.
Another way is to hire a live band because they are less likely to play music suitable for the way they dance (in a sexual manner, of course). In the non-school field, those who invite guests at dance parties or receptions involving that activity write along the lines of “no grinding” in their invitations.
But there’s another solution some schools and other organizers consider to discourage anyone from grinding: ballroom dancing and cotillions.
Pros
There are benefits to learning ballroom dancing, besides the fact that it burns calories. For the main part, it teaches people the proper way to dance. You really can’t sway your hips behind your partner who’s doing so likewise when a Strauss waltz plays. You have to learn how to dance to it.
Also, you learn basic dance etiquette. While eager students get on the dance floor and start to grind along to recent hits that fit the dance, students learn to ask their partners on the dance floor. That gives them more confidence to dance with the opposite sexes.
Best of all, that method of social dancing allows them to meet new friends as well as the old. The best way to do so is to form cotillions. They are programs designed for people to properly dance, boost their self-confidence, and meet each other.
I for one have danced in a cotillion as a teen, and I loved it so much that I wished all dances with formal wear (school-sponsored or not) can do it. The dance featured in mine was the waltz, but others can include salsa, tango, and foxtrot as well.
Well, at least it’s not grinding.
Cons
Ballroom dancing has its flaws. Instructors are really hard to come by, and lessons can be very expensive. A great way to pare down on costs is to find a friend or volunteer someone to help participants learn the steps. Schools would love to recruit their students who are really good at it, but sometimes they prefer bump-and-grind over dancing mambo.
Also, the music for that type of dancing with friends is lame. Although DJs crank out tunes for it as well, bands big and small (especially big bands with 12-15 wind instruments and small classical-style orchestras) take advantage of it. (Remember that they play mostly lame music, which can turn off teens.) Something in the likes of Wine, Woman, and Song (a Strauss Waltz) can anger those who embrace “sexual bending” or dancing with little space front-to-back.
Speaking of not being able to grind and being told to dance like “their great-grandparents,” participants feel as if organizers are plunging them back to the Regency Era. (Well, that’s when cotillions were at their heights, anyway!) Dressing in semi-formal to formal clothing (tuxedos, gowns, etc.) is not a problem especially for teens participating in homecomings, proms, and the like.
But what if organizers force them to learn the dances and have them wear cravats, knee-breeches, empire-waist dresses, and petticoats? What if they make students learn reels, waltzes, and other group dances at the time? They would deem the measure as “too stuffy.”
Teen Who Loves Grinding: Wow - that’s like, totally laaaaaaaaaaammmmme.
School Administrator: No it’s not - it’s the proper way to dance!
Some of the dancing at ballrooms is just as bad as freak dancing. Take a gander at the ballroom dancing on television, for instance. There are too much closed positions in the sauciest of salsas and rumbas, as well as a minimal amount of grinding (but not in a way that’s too common). Fortunately, most classes offer family-friendly versions of them.
In fact, most dances started out as being thorny to society. For instance, Catholics and other moralists bashed the waltz during the Regency Era, but that didn’t stop there. In 2007, the education ministry in China urged schools to implement the waltz in their curriculums to combat childhood obesity.
Some teachers, parents, and critics decried it because the closed positions encourage premature infatuation. (That means that dancing it would incite “puppy love.”) Simply put, they had the same views as the moralists did in the early 1800’s. Thus, a handful of schools opted out of the program.
Despite being so lame to dance party participants as well as expensive, ballroom dancing can be a boon to everyone. But there are questions organizers need to consider when they hold a party with at least a third of the dances in the genre. Is it feasible and appealing for the target audience? What are the costs for a good instructor? How would the guests react to the measure?
On top of that, does ballroom dancing work – just for the sake of clean dancing?
