R & B Dancing

[Sagitta]

So there is this R & B dance party this coming Friday and I'm considering whether this is my cup of tea. Unfortunately I have no idea what sort of dancing one does to R & B. I can think of hustle and west coast swing...perhaps foxtrot? Am I correct? What other partner dances can one do?

[peachexploration]

Hmm. I dunno know Sagitta. When I think of modern R&B dancing, it's more closely related to partner club dancing to R&B music. I guess you can even call it toned-down hip hop. R&B has two meanings though now that I think of it. Now, if it's the R&B of the 40s, 50s type music then west coast would probably be the dance. Hope this helps. :)

[pygmalion]

Foxtrot is definitely out. :shock: LOL.

Yup, peach, I agree with your assessment. R&B music of the 40's, 50's , 60's mostly fit various swing dances -- lots of WCS, some ECS, and some specialty swing dances, like bop.

Nowadays, with a little swing, some freestyle romantic dance, and some club freestyle under your belt, you should fit in just fine. :wink: 8)

Then , there have always been specialty dances that have local and/or short-term popularity. Don't worry about learning these in advance. The styles can change pretty rapidly.

[d nice]

bop isn't a short term popularity dance, it is at least as old as west coast swing... its just more regional than anything, much the same way wcs, push, whip, and carolina shag were until competitions started bringing it out into the limelight.

Chicago steppin', bop, and hand dancing are all great partner dances as is west coast... but hustle is not an r&b dance, it is not a dance that truly applys to anything outside of bad disco and techno... you need music that has no upbeat, just that steady bass hit otherwise you dance across the music instead of with it.

[pygmalion]

Yup. Bop has been around since at least the late fifties (if you ask my oldest sister LOL). I learned it in the early seventies. And I know people who still do that dance almost exclusively. And VERY WELL. A great dance! 8) :lol:

[pygmalion]

Chicago steppin', bop, and hand dancing are all great partner dances as is west coast...

Yeah. I'm also curious about these dances, which I have no idea how to do. Where is hand dancing from? Chicago steppin is a mid-west dance, if I'm not mistaken. (Is it also called mid-west swing, or is that something different?)

Chicago steppin, from what I understand, is another swing derived dance that's been around for a very long time. Right now, there are a couple R. Kelly songs -- Step in the Name of Love, obviously, and another whose name I can't remember -- that are the right tempo for Chicago steppin. Beyond that, and what I read in the latest 5.6.7.8 magazine, I know nothing.

I also started a thread on hand dancing, which got no replies. I'll have to dig that one up.

I wonder if there are any clips out there on the web?

Google, here I come.

[pygmalion]

Just for the record, be careful how you google hand dancing. :shock: Apparently, that must be a suggestive slang that I didn't know. I'll be back, with G-rated links only. :wink: :lol:

[Sagitta]

I never thought hand dancing was a real partner dance!! :o :)

[pygmalion]

I'm not sure of the accuracy of this history. I hope d nice can help. But apparently hand dancing is short for D.C. hand dancing, and it's been around since the fifties.

http://www.joshgreene.com/bj/history.html

(btw, I had to add "step pattern" to keep from getting hits on porno links)