Back in the day (1970s), my parents used to ballroom dance to foxtrot or waltz which was dying. Meanwhile, my way wasn’t really dancing in the traditional while conventional sense, but rather headbanging to rock bands like Pink Floyd, Slade, T-Rex, or Black Sabbath.
Headbanging during a performance at concerts, in place of typical dancing, metal fans are more likely to mosh and headbang (a movement in which the head is shaken up and down in time with the music).
But then, suddenly you had John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever on the scene in December 1977. I was already working in London, and this new electric whilst intense movement got me into Saturday night disco dancing!
In the mid-1970s, disco dancing brought a return to dancing with a partner in choreographed steps in dances such as the hustle and the bump (see below). Disco was influenced by modern jazz dancing and became rather athletic, incorporating kicks, turns, and even backflips.
Disco can be seen as a reaction by the 1960s counterculture to both the dominance of rock music and the stigmatization of dance music at the time. Several dance styles were developed during the period of 70s disco's popularity in the United States, including "the Bump", "the Hustle", "the Watergate", and "the Busstop". (see below for music styles)
As I have gotten older, I’ve turned to sax and piano Jazz, lounge, hip hop, and have a more open attitude towards music.
Take care!
Prof. Carl Boniface
(See dance videos below)
Vocabulary builder:
Traditional verses conventional = Conventional: refers to what is generally expected by people based on what is common, at a specific time, in a specific culture. Traditional: refers to customs and usages that have been handed down from past generations to present time. Conventional is closer to meaning "adhering to old or accepted customs".
Mosh (v) = dance, slam (bang, crash, smash) dance
Counterculture (n) = a culture that has different values and runs in the opposite direction to those in established culture