What's the Coolest Dance Style

[Mythical]

For Guys, mainly, What's the Coolest looking dance style?

I have some uni work to do - the brief is to design a website for a dance company, and one of the things that's mentioned in the brief is getting boys to dance (in schools) To help us make a starts, we thought we'd look at some really cool dance styles and how they advertise/portray themselves. (then, probably disregard it completely)

As much as I'd love to look at ceroc, i'm sorry.....it's just not cool enough!
So...suggestions, please?

[LMC]

For getting school age boys dancing - street dance or hip hop, without a doubt.

Check out www.greenhouseschools.org dance programs :)

Another organisation I've been in contact with has had some success with engaging boys through MC-ing/DJ-ing before making 'em dance :wink:

[Keith J]

For me West Coast Swing. The reasons are the smooth style, high musicality, Heidi G' describes Leads need to 'look masculine and manly'. It also looks relaxed and unhurried, the music gendre it can be danced to is wide, including modern hip hop through to typical Brit' pop as long as the beat is generally under 120bpm.
Its image is epitomises chilled out California.

Is this something to work with?

[straycat]

For getting school age boys dancing - street dance or hip hop, without a doubt.

:yeah:

Absolutely that. Get them hooked, and you can probably introduce them to a wider range of things, but good street or hip hop or related dances will, IMO, find the widest appeal with that age range of boys.

[Yliander]

As much as I'd love to look at ceroc, i'm sorry.....it's just not cool enough! surely not - what self respecting male doesn't want to get his hands on a womans body? :na:

[Achaeco]

For getting school age boys dancing - street dance or hip hop, without a doubt.

Check out www.greenhouseschools.org dance programs :)

Another organisation I've been in contact with has had some success with engaging boys through MC-ing/DJ-ing before making 'em dance :wink:

:yeah:
Stratford-upon-Avon college have one of the countries largest intakes into street/hip/stage and all the other stuff.
Give them a call, its a becon college so they have to answer any questions regarding the above.

[spindr]

As much as I'd love to look at ceroc, i'm sorry.....it's just not cool enough! So...suggestions, please?
Cheerleading?

SpinDr

[straycat]

surely not - what self respecting male doesn't want to get his hands on a womans body? :na:

Graham Norton?

[StokeBloke]

The coolest dance style is my mongrel-bastard-mash-multi-style of having fun :whistle:

I love to watch any form of well executed dance. Especially WCS as it seems to hinge a lot on musicality over moves, but seeing some Lindy stuff done well makes me green with envy. Tango just looks awesome too.

Inspired by Jango I am thinking of starting a 80's/MJ fusion break away company called Jivepop-o-botics, a fusion of jive, body popping and robotics danced to Elvis laid over a Herbie Hancock backing beat. Legwarmers and Frankie Says Ohhh Errrr Missus T shirts compulsory :na:

[Trousers]

You're all mu. .

. . . . . . . . . . mu. . .



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mad!














Coolest dance is Ice dancing.

'scotta be really init like 'cos it so cold like! :whistle:

[fletch]

Hi hun, :flower:


I have just asked Joe, and he said




ADAM & TAS



:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

[Seahorse]

You might want to checkout Rudeye Rudeye - The UK's No.1 Professional Dance Agency (http://www.rudeye.com/)

If you're looking for some funky inspiration then checkout coolhomepages CoolHomepages Web Design Gallery - Web Page Design Gallery, Links, Flash Designs. Browse Cool Website Templates,Resources and Examples To Get Inspired (http://coolhomepages.com/) It should be of help so long as you've defined your marketing strategy.

Another useful source might be Webmonkey: The Web Developer's Resource (http://www.webmonkey.com/)

Incidently... personally, forget what everyone else says - right now I think ballroom is the coolist thing for a bloke to do... easily compliments powertools and running!

[clevedonboy]

Essential viewing is the Gap advert - made Lindy look the coolest dance on the planet

[LMC]

Cheerleading?
Actually, that's not such a bad idea.

British Cheerleading Champions, based in Newham (not exactly the nicest part of London). The woman who founded it has discovered that the boys like the physical fitness aspect - check out the third photo in their gallery (http://www.ascensioneagles.com/picture-gallery.html).

For all those who have suggested any type of partner dance - we're talking school age. Not happening, at least not until you've started them on something else as straycat says. Trust me on this one - I work for a youth charity.

[Cruella]

For all those who have suggested any type of partner dance - we're talking school age. Not happening, at least not until you've started them on something else as straycat says. Trust me on this one - I work for a youth charity.
Absolutely! I taught an MJ lesson to the year 5/6s in my school a few weeks ago. The hardest part was getting them to hold the hands of the opposite sex! :sick:
Hip Hop / Street Dance is definately the coolest dance style. It's made for the youngsters, it looks so wrong when us wrinklies try to do it!! :what:

[bigdjiver]

For Guys, mainly,... As much as I'd love to look at ceroc, i'm sorry.....it's just not cool enough!
So...suggestions, please?If it were I, I would show them David & Lily at the 97 Le Jive championships, and the "Witchdoctor" routine from the 98 Le Jive Championships. I think that fhe combination of strength & coordination and wit that they I saw there would inspire macho men.

[purplehyacinth]

This one doesn't spring immediately to mind as being cool, but the RSCDS has had some success with getting schoolkids to do Scottish Country Dancing up here in Scotland - partly to through the "Dance Scottish" Schools pack. Over the last few years, there have been a few quite big events involving large numbers of schoolkids dancing (there is one regular one sometime about the summer in Fife which springs particularly to mind - but there are others). RSCDS has been more proactive of late with taking scd out to the schools, and I seem to remember a couple of years ago, they were talking about introducing some form of "badge" scheme for young dancers, but I haven't heard anything further on that one (mainly because my interest in "youth" scd is more "young adults" rather than schoolkids, so I have lost touch rather with what is happening at schools level).

[spindr]

Cheerleading?
Actually, that's not such a bad idea.
It was a serious (though tongue-in-cheek) suggestion.

Dance Spirit magazine (http://www.dancespirit.com) often has features with guys in dance teams --- and "Coaching Cheerleading Successfully" has guys acting as the base for many of the acro-balances.

SpinDr

[fletch]

I'v never had a problem with Joe or Maddie, they even dance with each other quite well, Mike Allsop, TB and Stokie gave them some lessons last tuesday and they were quite happy practising, they looked fab doing the 'columbian with a Tango flick,body roll' at the end of it :worthy: I cound get it properly :respect:


and Joe has never seemed to have a problem asking people to dance, especially if your name is 'Yuko' :rolleyes: :awe:

I don't know where he get his cheek from :whistle:

[Rocky]

For Guys, mainly, What's the Coolest looking dance style?

I have some uni work to do - the brief is to design a website for a dance company, and one of the things that's mentioned in the brief is getting boys to dance (in schools) To help us make a starts, we thought we'd look at some really cool dance styles and how they advertise/portray themselves. (then, probably disregard it completely)

As much as I'd love to look at ceroc, i'm sorry.....it's just not cool enough!
So...suggestions, please?

As most people have said, Street and Hip Hop may be the coolest - but I think the answer really depends on a number of factors: their age, their social class, their intelligence and whether they are sexually aware/active or not.

Under 14 or 15 it probably is Street & Hippity Hop - over that they will start to think about what it means to have actual physical contact with a girl. S&HH is great for the peacock strutting kinda stuff, but you don't whisk a girl off her feet by spinning her on her head.

It's also really quite difficult to do convincingly, so a lot of boys are going to feel very self conscious about the fact that they are crap at it. Any solo dance leaves you open to the potential of ridicule: at least in a partner dance you can blame it on someone else!

MJ has to be the way to go if you are talking about involving the greatest number of people - which is surely the intention isn't it? It's easy to learn, it can straddle different social class structures AND the kids are interacting on a social level. In addition, it's likely to get the vote of the parents (again who's support and encouragment you will need?) as it appears more acceptable. By this I mean that you need to think about the image a dance style portrays and within that you have to think about the music that the kids will listen to, but more importantly, the music this may lead them to - as for S&HH, a fair bit of it is stuff you couldn't lay on your Mother F*****g granny is it?

(Oh... but then there's Boogie Woogie Choo Choo Train... Hmmm...)

As for not looking cool, well if you got someone like Viktor to teach it, and use the right kind of music, I think they would have a different viewpoint...

The other option is Salsa where you have the advantage of being able to teach the basic steps in a solo format. Then, when the kids have more confidence, they can be partnered up. Salsa can also be taught to traditional Salsa music but is more so being danced to contemporary R&B these days, so there's a useful crossover there. (Thank goodness for that too, I've tried learning Salsa to traditional Salsa music and after about 40 mins I was ready to hang the DJ up by his bongos..)

If it were me, I would get the very best DVDs I could representing each style, and take a broad cross section of boys and see what they think. Once they've given their initial view I would talk to them about how difficult some bits were to learn and point out the styles where there is no interaction, and actually explain what that means. I'd then poll them again. It would make sense to me to do market research in this way before going down a route that might be entirely wrong.

As for us wrinklies, there is no question that done well, WCS is the most sublime form of partner dancing there is. Having said that, it's not the most intimate, so my vote has to go to The Blues... no surprise there then.

[Groovemeister]

As I have ayoung lad who dances I would say although obviously dance style is going to have a bearing on it, the biggest thing that would pull boy's in would be a male dance teacher and I mean male not some imitation:wink:

Also if I was going to find out what my dance school was going to promote I would be asking the demographic I wanted to attract not a completely different group of people but its good for ideas I guess.

[fletch]

I was ready to hang DJ up by his bongos..)





I hope your not picking on DJ again :whistle:


:D

[Rocky]

I hope your not picking on DJ again :whistle:


:D

THE Dj as you very well know you minx (funny none the less....)

[Lory]

I think Argentine Tango's got to be somewhere near the top, for the simple reason, people of all ages can look really cool, even folk in their 70's can look awesome! :worthy:

[Spin dryer]

I think Argentine Tango's got to be somewhere near the top, for the simple reason, people of all ages can look really cool, even folk in their 70's can look awesome! :worthy:

:yeah:

[tiger]

WCS seems the current favourite

[Gadget]

For getting school age boys dancing - street dance or hip hop, without a doubt.
A bit of a thread hi-jack, but anyone know where (in the North East*) there are classes for this? I know of a couple of kids that would love to do it... erm, and perhaps one older kid. :whistle:


{*this is the Ceroc Scotland forum :rolleyes:}

[Mr Cool]

Has to be SMooooooooooooth Swing :wink: Smooooooooooooooth Tango:whistle:in fact any dance danced Smooooooothly with the right partner conection and attitude looks coooooooooooooool:waycool:
No contest.:wink:

:waycool::waycool::waycool:

[MartinHarper]

Any dance danced Smooooooothly with the right partner conection and attitude looks coooooooooooooool:waycool:

To school-age boys?
I think not.

[Thetruth]

surely not - what self respecting male doesn't want to get his hands on a womans body? :na:

With you on that one..................where do I sign up.....:wink:

[Thetruth]

Tap dancing is sexy and cool..................................but you don't need a partner................I think any style that has attributes in the character of the dance to show masculine and feminine side of a dance couple is cool. I was watching a dance show recently and Latin Cha Cha got a huge applause from the young audience, because the couple dancing were sexy and very stylish.....................plus they had a great connection. Way cool is John Travolta and Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction dance scene together.......................:waycool:

[ducasi]

Tap dancing is sexy and cool.....
To whom? In my mind tap dancing is one of the least cool and sexy dances I know of.

[Cruella]

A bit of a thread hi-jack, but anyone know where (in the North East*) there are classes for this? I know of a couple of kids that would love to do it... erm, and perhaps one older kid. :whistle:


{*this is the Ceroc Scotland forum :rolleyes:}

Nope, sorry Gadget. My 12 year old boy has started at some Breakdance classes in Rugby, if you fancy travelling a bit.:wink:

[ducasi]

A bit of a thread hi-jack, but anyone know where (in the North East*) there are classes for this? I know of a couple of kids that would love to do it... erm, and perhaps one older kid. :whistle:


{*this is the Ceroc Scotland forum :rolleyes:}
Googling for "citymoves aberdeen" finds you this (http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/ACCI/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.asp?lID=10584&sID=3217).

[Thetruth]

To whom? In my mind tap dancing is one of the least cool and sexy dances I know of.

"Different strokes for different folks". What makes the world such an exciting place. So what would be your suggestion???????

[ducasi]

"Different strokes for different folks". What makes the world such an exciting place. So what would be your suggestion???????

Like many others in this thread, I agree with LMC's post...


For getting school age boys dancing - street dance or hip hop, without a doubt.

:yeah:

[Dreadful Scathe]

Surely Capoeira is the coolest.


Graham Norton?

I must admit I found it very amusing at the end of the Eurovision dance program when going to congratulate the winners Mr.Norton brushed past the woman and went in for a big hug with the guy first. Got his priorities right :)

[straycat]

Surely Capoeira is the coolest.


Do eskimos have any kind of dance culture? If so, it gets my vote....

[Thetruth]

Like many others in this thread, I agree with LMC's post...



:yeah:

Then you got to update.................krumping is the cool new dance style on the streets amongst young men.

[straycat]

Then you got to update.................krumping is the cool new dance style on the streets amongst young men.

Something being the current 'in thing' doesn't necessarily make it cool (in my book) - to my eyes, krumping isn't particularly cool - for starters, it's trying too hard to be :rolleyes:

[Thetruth]

Something being the current 'in thing' doesn't necessarily make it cool (in my book) - to my eyes, krumping isn't particularly cool - for starters, it's trying too hard to be :rolleyes:

I actually think krumping is crap and a violent dance style..................but alot of kids in America and the streets of London and Europe are learning it and think it very coooool. Just because you and I "oldies" think it not, means diddly squat.

[straycat]

Just because you and I "oldies" think it not, means diddly squat.

To said youngsters, perhaps not. Doesn't make them right though :cool:

[David Bailey]

To said youngsters, perhaps not. Doesn't make them right though :cool:
But it does in the context of the original question, presumably?

[straycat]

But it does in the context of the original question, presumably?

Perhaps. My feeling though is that it's likely to be more of a transitional phase - not that long-lived before the next craze comes along. That could be just wishful thinking, mind.

Or I could just be succumbing to a deep-seated and previously never-revealed prejudice I hold against clowns (as another name for it seems to be 'clown-dancing')

[ducasi]

Then you got to update.................krumping is the cool new dance style on the streets amongst young men.
In which case it's included in LMC's mention of "street dance". :)