My prom took place in 2008, when Flo Rida’s and T-Pain’s “Low” was a chart-topping grinding anthem. And what did you know - my prom escort and neurodivergent 17-year-old me (was too cultured via Ovation TV and all the early music broadcasts that broadcasted on In Concert via EWTN to care about the controversial dance craze back in the day) danced CLEANLY while a majority of my classmates did the - *ahem* - sex-sex sa damit.
Among my inspirations for my Zazzle product lines are my high school memories, and dancing differently than my classmates as Lil’ Jon rapped about freak dancing “to the window and to the wall” is one of those. It in large part motioned me to create this witty flyer, perfect for not only middle and high school dance attendee packets for their social dance functions like proms and homecomings, BUT also ballroom dance studios’ marketing campaigns.
Here’s to a grind dancing-free 2023! And don’t forget to check out my collection of pro-ballroom/line dancing swag (including this flyer for schools STILL STRUGGLING with that) on Zazzle!
Made by me, for the Zazzle store Construction Paper Eras Nostalgic Apparel and Life Stuff
Back in the 2000s and 2010s, grind dancing was THE dance craze that left school faculty members screaming and Fred Astaire and Arthur Murray turning in their graves. It came in different synonyms like freak dancing and - if done to reggaeton - EL PERREO.
As the Spanish moniker of the latter term attested, the dance similar to canine mating rituals were cruxes of many school dance cancellations at the time. Most grinding took place at homecomings and proms, where girls dress in formal gowns and men dress in tuxes. Having been there as a high schooler during the mid-to-late 2000s myself, I would see at least 30% of attendees form a grind chain. If formed to the strains of reggaeton, it was called a tren de perreo.
“SexyBack,” “Low,” “Gasolina,” “Eso Ehh,” and “Goodies” were the gold standards for grinding just as “In the Mood,” “Take the A-Train,” "One O'Clock Jump," "Begin the Beguine,” and “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” were the gold standards for swing dancing. Last time I checked, I neither saw see any teens do a tren de perreo during formal nights at cruises past nor my relatives’ friends’ weddings, Sweet 16s (mine included), and the Filipino 18th birthday equivalents, debuts.
Inappropriate music aside, school administrators tried tactics to kill the trend. Some of them canceled their dances altogether. Some others annexed an average of 2 wristbands to jewelry per student. One being snipped meant a warning, while both being cut off usually resulted in being asked to leave the venue.
Few other school administrators hired ballroom dance instructors because they felt that grinding was the only form of social dancing their student bodies knew outside the square dancing units at PE.
“There is something about putting on a formal ball, and ballroom dancing brings a sense of class to any event,” a blog post of Quick Quick Slow Ballroom Dance Studio in Marlboro, NJ, read.
“Ladies get to wear gorgeous ballgowns and men get to look dapper in their suits, apparel which people rarely get an occasion to wear. We grew up watching and reading about princes and princesses attending balls and falling in love, not going clubbing with glow sticks.”
“This nostalgic form of dancing reminds us of simpler times while also offering a form of stress relief and exercise. Ballroom dancing has always been used as a social mixer for people to celebrate different happenings together and find new friends. It does not matter if you are single or a couple, ballroom dancing lessons are a great way to meet others and is a unique talent that is sure to impress anyone.”
“Even though people often associate ballroom dancing with slow dancing, there are fun upbeat dances like the foxtrot and the jive. No matter what you are into, there is something for everyone.”
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and its aftershocks in the form of health restrictions all but played the party poopers who were killing off grind dancing in schools. Once the first in-person prom, HoCo, and other school-sanctioned formals after the lockdowns had taken place, students began finding out that crotch-to-cheeks dancing began to become IMPRACTICAL, given the social distancing guidelines at the time.
As far as their home lives went, the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic (and several years even before that) lead to both teens AND adults laying the grooves down with this dance craze: the side hustle.
The side hustle goes by several iterations, from lemonade stands, dropshipping, print-on-demand, and network marketing. No skimpy clothing or music with explicit lyrics are needed to dance it. Done right and legally, it’s one of the few dance crazes that WON’T send teens to the principals’ offices or have them earn suspensions! Plus, there aren’t any cooties involved!
Creating items with this design (there’s a version that mentions twerking too) brought me nostalgia of not only seeing my fellow classmates grind dancing at HoCo 2007 and Prom 2008 as a high schooler. Coming from this 90s kid, I grew up learning line dances like The Macarena, The Electric Slide, and Achy Breaky Heart. For a brief spell, I learned ballroom dancing.
My cumulative experiences with social dancing - as well as my stints of content writing, print-on-demand, and reselling - lead me to create my Zazzle lines under Side Hustle Dance Craze.
There is one thing that seems to run through all of my work, your professor would call this a theme and I would call him pompous. I do not try to have it tie together all of my stories and drawings and paintings, it just ends up there. I don't usually realize until I am halfway done with whatever it is and the lazy eyed cliche but unanswered question will twist out from the space between lines and relieve itself all over my hard work.
How can humanity handle the balance between technology and nature?
How long before they are one and the same?
The answer is 1993.
Yeah, these questions haven't been brow-raising since the days when the government actually allowed people to protest, but they still stand; in the corner of every comic shop, computer repair store, cell phone kiosk; and in the glow on the face of every person at the coffee shop, 'Getting Work Done' on their laptops.
I wonder if she is noticing all the important work I am getting done.
I'm going to focus on how we apply tech to ourselves in my next few posts. I will leave you with a vignette. And go back and put some humorous pictures between my paragraphs so this tiny essay will actually hold your attention.
Look. It moves.
A tumbledown storefront in Pilsen: thrub-dub-wubbing electric music, freshly downloaded after exhaustive minutes of searching on the part of the DJ, mixed effortlessly on beat by a program with innate skill coded into it. Masses of sweaty kids ranging from underage to just a little Too Old For This; alternately dancing and checking their phones to see if there is anything better going on. The most poignant scene in this: A young couple, her back to him, his hands in the air, eyes closed in revery as he grinds his groin into her ample and offered rear. She continues to shake it, face down at her cell phone, her eyes dull and illuminated by the screen as she texts someone who must surely be more important or interesting than her dance partner.
It was like this but not as classy.
Like beards? Zombies? Existential crises? You must check out my serial novel: DEAD OF THE UNION- Can North and South unite against the zombie uprising in the heat of the Civil War?
