Last week, our Bridgeport High School students dazzled in their homecoming best. Couples exchanged flowers, posed for pictures and enjoyed dinner dates. Then, it was off to the main event.

 

At the dance, there was a bit of a scuffle as to what the students’ rights were when it came to dancing. According to some students, they weren’t allowed to dance the way they wanted. Chaperones say the kids were told ahead of time what the guidelines were when it came to the dance floor. There would be no grinding. The original definition of the word being "crushing or pulverizing by friction," you get the idea. The chaperones stuck to their guns.

 

You might be thinking “Footloose” and “Dirty Dancing,” flicks of the past which highlight the generation gap when it comes to dancing – which through the ages has combined physical activity with the universal self-expressive language of music.  

 

Some might say they’re kids. Let them dance.

 

Others might there has to be limits and that, in fact, is why there are chaperones at events like school dances.

 

I say like it or not, society and pop culture has a direct influence on our kids – and us, in fact. Teens look up to and admire dancers and vocalists who are pegged by the media as entertainment superstars. 

 

So why in the world doesn’t someone use that power in a positive way?  Come on, talented young artists, come up with a dance craze that is fun but isn’t rated X.

 

Like anything else, it’s a show fade. Looking back at the ‘80s, we don’t see anything so wrong with the movements of Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey and certainly not in the ‘50s when, according to critics, Elvis shook a little too much pelvis.

 

But one thing leads to another and another and it seems we’ve hit a point where there’s little to be left to the imagination.

 

When I was in high school back in the ‘70s, there wasn’t a popular dance style, per se. There was a lot of swaying back and forth, both fast and slow. I remember wishing that jitterbug and other interactive dance patterns and steps were the craze. So why didn’t I try to bring it or something similar back? Why doesn’t someone come up with something cool today?

 

And as my much younger coworker suggested, why not offer school-wide instruction in school to teach kids some appropriate steps? She’s only been out of school a handful of years, but said she would have appreciated such a class.

 

At the homecoming assembly, a choreographed flash mob dance number brought the house down and it featured everyone from freshman dance students to members of the BHS Danceline to football grandmas with feather boas.

 

It’s all food for thought.

 

I'm not pointing a finger at the kids. And I certainly don’t blame the administration and faculty. But maybe the headbutting over the dancing will result in a positive change.

 

I hope so.

 

The situation at last week’s homecoming dance created an awkward period of time when no one was doing much dancing at all. In a scene from “13 Going on 30,” a dud of a dance turned sensation when Jennifer Garner’s character broke into some impromptu “Thriller.” Sometimes it takes a brave and determined soul to combine spontaneity and creativity to turn a bad situation into a good one.

 

Here’s to shaking things up by prom time. 

 

Julie Perine can be reached at 304-848-7200, julie@connect-bridgeport.com or follow @JuliePerine on Twitter. 

 

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