Play Something I Can Dance To

Contributing to the evolution of the underground music scene in Southwest Florida presents many challenges including finding a balance between what people are used to hearing and introducing them to styles that are unfamiliar. From time to time me and TREND will get asked if we can "play something that I can dance to" by a member of the audience. This inevitably happens when people around the room are grooving to what we are bumping. Being the type of gent that I am, rather than taking this offensively, I tend to redirect their attention to the people dancing and shrug... My humble indication that if others are dancing to it, maybe you should try that...

But recently I've been reflecting on the fact that perhaps what's being asked of us is instruction. One of my strongest beliefs is that as a human species we are all one family dancing our way into existence. And the music we dance to is the expression of our shared emotional experiences here on Earth. That movement that we are compelled to act out is one of the common threads that weaves us all together into one people with one story.

Although Dubstep has been around in various forms for nearly a decade, this relatively new form of sound vibration made huge surges around the world in the last 3 years. While it has begun to filter into Top 40 tracks, radio and television ads, and even movie scores, one question that stills seems to be daunting people is how to dance to it.

With half-rhythm drum patterns ranging from 66.5 to 71 BPM, dubstep is typically propelled by wobbly basslines that are running at twice the beats per minute. This can cause a disconnect for dancers who are used to keeping pace with the snare, kicks and highs of the beat. The nature and structure of this style calls for more interpretative dance such as some of the examples below:

Cookie Monsta - Optimus Prime
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Cubism - Humans v2.0
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Blue Foundation - Eyes On Fire (Zeds Dead Remix)
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MiM0SA - Sirius
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Datsik - Southpaw Style
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And for those of you that feel more comfortable in a group, here's an example of some strength in numbers:

La Preuve 4 aka Dubstep Dance France




Even Producers envision what fresh moves to dubstep might look like. Here's two examples of videos synced to nasty wobble:

DS 4 dubSteP Nation - DeeP Relax



Girls v. Guys Dubstep Video



The point is that it doesn't really matter how or where you choose to dance, as long as you are feeling the music and you are brave enough to access how it makes you feel, by giving your body permission to express the emotions, you'll be dancing to whatever's played.

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