Dance Anthropology Essay

Submitted By Safira-Green
Words: 1556
Pages: 7
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This weekend, I tried something that I have never tried before. I experienced my first official house party/kickback. I was very skeptical about going but I wanted to have some fun and just dance. When I walked inside, I noticed how much fun everyone was having and how they did not have a care in the world about what other people were thinking. It felt kind of weird at first only because I was surrounded by a lot of college students. I know they were at least half my age. Majority of the people that were there was African American with only a handful of Caucasian. I could tell that most of the people that were was still depending on their parents to take care of them because they looked as if they just got out of high school. By that time I started to think, “What have I got myself into?” At first, I noticed that the guys style of dance consisted of bouncing around the room to the music. It kind of scared me at first because I did not want to get hit in the face. Once the DJ changed the style of music the girls started to twerk. The dance style that everyone seemed to be doing was more two step with stomping and arm movements, if they were not twerking. I actually liked the style of dance that everyone seemed to be doing. It was easy to catch on to the movements. The dance movements consisted of stiff movements with your arm pointed out in front of you as you move your body to the opposite side. The DJ even got involved , he came up with his own dance that was called “Watch my knees”. The movements was very simple but catchy. It was like I was moving side to side like an old woman but with a little swag. We utilized the space by moving in the same direction or we would have been bumping into each other. Some of us was facing each other so that we could be able to vibe to each other movements. The shape of the dance movements reminds me of making the letter “T” but only with you feet movements. The energy in the room was ecstatic! Everyone was having fun with adding different transitions to the movements. The dancers communicated through their movements how much they liked the song. If the DJ played a song that we did not like everyone would start to mingle or walk around the room. I observed people to refill on drinks and walk outside to the pool area to see who all was there. It seemed as if everyone was staring to get bored. This gave everyone the perfect opportunity to get numbers from people they wanted to hook up with or just chat with. I think the DJ actually did this on purpose because he did not play one slow song. Once the DJ played another popular song back to the dance floor everyone goes. I think this generation like dancing alone rather than being cuddled up with each other dancing. It is different from when I was in high school. At dances we would try to grind on guys instead of twerking and they would actually get behind us and dance along. At the party, all of they guys just watched the girls twerk like they were scared to dance with them. I think the girls kind of intimidated the boys with the movements. Although the atmosphere was out of the norm for me, I really enjoyed the experience. As a participant, the movement experience made me realize how every generation add and subtract new dance movements from the pass and incorporate them into their own. I learned that no matter where you are you should always dance like you the only one in the room. I believe that is the only way to enjoy dancing and experience life. The movements that I enjoyed seeing everyone do was the dance the DJ made up. The reason why is because it was unique and no one knew how to exactly do it. It made all of us want to try it. I was comfortable with trying the dance only because I was not the only one looking crazy trying to learn it. At the party, their were two people that stood out the crowd. The first person was an African American male that had dreads and had on clothes that reminded me of how we
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