Ok, so this weekend I’m going out with outher early twenties and may end up at a dance club. Anyone care to tell me or link me to webpages showing how modern club dance is (ones with rock type music, not the waltz, ettc.)
Thanks.
I thought you were going to ask about Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, and Twyla Tharp. 
If it’s like most clubs, it’ll be too dark to really tell what you’re doing. Just kinda flail around. If you’re a guy, you can do the “Cool Guy Dance” from rap videos and such. Just kinda bob up and down and wave your hands around and let the girl do all the work.
Oh dear. Well…ummm…
If the music goes [thump], [thump], [thump] (dance, trance, generic old school techno) just fail your limbs around vaguely to the beat.
If you hear guitars, then moshing (ie, jumping up and down and head banging) is the order of the day.
Dunno about the States, but in Australiasia and Europe you’ll be hard pressed to find a non-trance/techno/jungle/beat’ish place. Just hang around first, order a few drinks and see what the hell everyone else is doing.
Oh, and yeah, the bobbing thing is good if you’re hard pressed for co-ordination.
The Ministry of Sound’s page can be found here
Well, if you have the time before this weekend, pop in to a local club and be a wallflower. Although, I seriously doubt you will find a club playing rock music that people are actually dancing in. Most likely, if dancing is in the plans they will be going to a club that features some variation of electonica.
If the club is playing Trance/Techno/House, you should be fine. This style of music is all 4/4 time, about 125-140 beats per minute. If they are playing Drum and Bass, you are completely screwed, don’t even try. You can tell D&B apart because instead of a pounding “boom boom boom boom” or “boom chik boom chik boom chik boom chik” there will be “chika chika boom tsk clap clap tsk chika boom boom tsk tsk” and a lot of 18 year olds hand dancing (many complex and interweaving patterns, minimal lower body movement). If you happen to end up at one of these clubs, go get a drink and enjoy the show, but the likelyhood is fairly small.
Back to 4/4 club dancing. If you observe the dance floor, you will most likely notice three styles of dance. I call them “2/4”, “4/4” and “the drug induced sloth dance”. 2/4 is someone who times their major body movements to every other beat. 4/4 is someone who is pounding along with every major bass kick, and getting very sweaty. “The drug induced sloth” will have almost no correlation to the beat, and will be overly fascinated with their hands. Stay away from these people, they smell funny and throw off your groove.
For your first attempt, I would go with 4/4. Listen to the music for a while, focus on the beat, a little head bob and toe tapping helps to get your body prepared for what is next. Don’t overdo it at first, you don’t want to look epileptic. Stay focused on the beat and move onto the dance floor. Try not to think too much about what other people are doing once you are out there, although it can help to pick out one other 4/4 dancer a little ways away and allow them to “lead” in their pacing and scale of body movements.
Once you start moving, let your torso keep the beat. You can choose between the bob (bouncing up and down) or the weave (torso moves front to back, side to side). Either is fine, but the bob will wear you out quick. Let the movements of your arms and head follow your torso. As you start to feel more comfortable, you can move around the dance floor a bit more, but because of the tightness of many dance floors, there aren’t many “steps” you could learn. Just walk around in little steps, forwards or backwards and let your upper body do the work. Torow in a little sidestep if you won’t throw of your groove.
If you do happen to loose the beat, don’t panic. Just stop, run your hands through your hair, listen for the beat and jump in when you have found it again.
Also, there will be what are called “breaks”. A break is when the musician or DJ decides to mess with the people on the dance floor. The beat will stop completely, and the other instruments will go a little crazy. Don’t worry, take the oppurtunity to stop, stretch a bit, and observe. Some people will keep dancing through the breaks, but quite a few will just stop and wait for the beat to come back.
If you have to enter or leave the dance floor, just stop dancing and walk on or off. There is no reason to “dance your way off the floor”.
You can get a little more prepared by going to your local independent record store and looking for a CD that says “Dance Grooves 2003” or something similar. They look cheesy, but are surprisingly close to what many dance clubs are playing. Crank up the home stereo as loud as it will go and have fun.
Speaking of loud, remember to pick up a couple pairs of ear plugs before you go to the club. (any sporting goods store) It gets LOUD in there, and you will be dancing right in front of some big ass speakers.
And finally, I haven’t personally watched this, but I saw a copy of “Darins Dance Grooves” at Blockbuster the other day. Could be educational.
Most of all, though, have fun. And let us know how it goes.
Cheers.