Popular Dance

I’d like to think that most popular dances were the result of some unfortunate condition which involves a story about an underdog. Take for instance, Timmy. Let’s say Timmy went to his senior prom. He went stag, not because he chose to, but because no one and I mean no one would go with him. It’s sad, but true. He had a reputation for being a terrible dancer and being…an epileptic. But, Timmy wasn’t going to let that stop him (Well, he would try anyway). Everyone knew Timmy had epilepsy, everyone but the DJ. The DJ had his disco balls spinning, colored lights flashing, and glow sticks twirling. At some point an angry student shouted, “I’m sick of the same old dance! I wish someone would come up with a new one!” Coincidentally, Timmy was walking across the floor toward the punch bowl when he had…an epileptic seizure. Timmy began to flail frantically like Mick Jagger after eating 50 pixie sticks. This was the first time people witnessed what would later become…the Harlem shake. Like a true teen coming of age movie, everybody joined in, doing the Harlem shake—making it damn near impossible to tell if someone (Timmy) was having a seizure. The next day a Harlem rapper saw a clip of these high school students doing this crazy dance and he said, “I’ma sample that like I’ma sample some 1970s song.” Needless to say he called this dance the Harlem Shake.

        The same goes for that “brush your shoulders off” dance move. I bet some kid, we’ll call him Timmy, just had some really, really bad dandruff and was trying really hard for people not to see it on his shoulders…at a dance probably. Next thing you know, people are joining in, and a dance sensation was born. White flakes filled the room creating a confetti-like spectacle. This would have been fine if it were the Snowball Dance. However, this was the Spring Fling. And the white confetti was actually Timmy’s dandruff.