Hyperreal

Well I’ve just watched Dirty Dancing. Last time I watched it was just before I took up dancing and it helped inspire me to attend my first class.

Ceroc isn’t Dirty Dancing though. What was the dance they were doing? Mambo? From having seen Ceroc beforehand and once I experienced it, I really didn’t think there was much similarity. That said, a lot of the moves would translate very easily into Modern Jive.

I had been told a relatively simple move I like to do was in Dirty Dancing. The move itself is just a stylised “step across”, and as such is more obviously a Jive move, rather than Latin. (Mambo is Latin, right?) But as it is fairly simple, I imagine that some Latin version of the step across must exist.

So, now I’ve watched the film again, is my current favourite move in Dirty Dancing? No.

Are you sure? Yes.

What, not even something similar? Well, OK, there is a similar move involving both the guy and girl turning under his hand in turn, but it’s done in a different order, and it’s not travelling. But if you were to switch the order around and put some travel into it, then sure, my move is in Dirty Dancing.

I can understand why someone might have confused one for the other in the middle of a dance, without close reference to the film. And the fact that my dancing made someone think of the film (though I think she said she’d watched it the previous night, and so she was probably thinking about it all through the night) and of a move in the film, filled me with joy that night. I have no intention of letting it slip away just over some trivial little details like reality.

So, in my mind, it’ll always be my Dirty Dancing move, though I shall stop embarrassing myself (and the poor girl who is the Dirty Dancing fan, if she reads this) by referring to it by this name.

Now… must get back to practicing my “Nobody puts Baby in a corner…”