Arm Dancing

[Bbucko]

Go ahead: I defy you. Listen to these songs without dancing with your arms and hips, even while sitting.

Hello, I Love You

All Day, & All Of The Night

In case you need lessons, let me introduce my pal Siouxie, queen of the arm dance:

Dazzle

Fireworks

Or perhaps you'd prefer a young Nick Cave:

Nick The Stripper

 

[concupisys]

when i was raving (many moons ago), i learned to dance with my arms.... the technique eventually became known as 'liquid', and my friends and i would practice like crazy whenever and wherever we could.... at the parties, it looked amazing when we had glowsticks in our hands, and some people would even wear white gloves that glowed under the blacklights if there were any to dance under.... it gave us great joy to be a source of visual stimulation for the acid heads tripping out a few feet away from us....

 

[curiousvirgin]

Siouxie sure can arm dance...

 

[concupisys]

here's a cool example of people arm dancing.... it's a style called tecktonik, which originated out of the french club scene a few years ago....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zU_jMAXeok&playnext_from=TL&videos=SNL1AuBThrE

 

[Bbucko]

when i was raving (many moons ago), i learned to dance with my arms.... the technique eventually became known as 'liquid', and my friends and i would practice like crazy whenever and wherever we could.... at the parties, it looked amazing when we had glowsticks in our hands, and some people would even wear white gloves that glowed under the blacklights if there were any to dance under.... it gave us great joy to be a source of visual stimulation for the acid heads tripping out a few feet away from us....

It's an oddly lost art, hence the thread.

About two years ago I brought back some pals/co-workers from a bar I was working in her in Ft Lauderdale. While one was engaged in some (hopeless) political discussion with my then-roommate on the balcony, I started dancing to whatever the music was that we had on the stereo with a bartender/pal who was in his early 30s.

About five minutes into it, he pulled me close, my arms and hips waving, and said "You really are from the 80s, huh? Really that old..."

I stepped away and began flailing even harder. "Fucking right, baby", I replied

Siouxie sure can arm dance...

That's why I called her "the queen" of arm dancing. No one did it more brilliantly nor consistently (in popular culture)

here's a cool example of people arm dancing.... it's a style called tecktonik, which originated out of the french club scene a few years ago....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zU_jMAXeok&playnext_from=TL&videos=SNL1AuBThrE

That's some good shit, there. Leave it to the French...

BTW, an elemental aspect to arm dancing which even Siouxie didn't always exactly personify is/was the "throw", best shown here at about 1:59.

The "throw" comes from the shoulder, not the elbow, and was inevitably the hyperpersonification of cool. It was especially effective with a song like this (even if the live version from YouTube has everyone too occupied with actually playing instruments to accomplish it).

 

[D_Tim McGnaw]

I love Eighties arm dancing! Being as I am an Electro and Synth-Pop fan makes it almost mandatory

 

[Bbucko]

I love Eighties arm dancing! Being as I am an Electro and Synth-Pop fan makes it almost mandatory

Don't forget the importance of counter-balancing arm dancing with hip swivels and leg twists, luv. Among my chief sources of inspiration in the development of my own unique style of such dancing was a quote from Patti Smith in Jean Stein and George Plympton's masterful biography of Edie Sedgwick that was published in 1982 (and which I devoured in a single 12-hour sitting) where she described a dancefloor as being "a sea of knees and elbows": all I had to add was a few arm-throws and I was there :biggrin1:

A word to the wise, though: a dancefloor full of arm dancers can be a dangerous place: establish and maintain enough space or someone'll wind up with a black eye

For I'm A Believer, one generally combined a pony-stomp (rather than hip twists), head tosses and shoulder-shimmies with one's arm-tosses.

Blue Monday worked better with shadow-boxing arm dancing rather than throws or tosses.

Two local Boston acts with songs eminently arm dance worthy:

The Atlantics Lonely Hearts
(More guitar-driven New Wave than Synth)
November Group We Dance
(Totally rad Synth)

 

[D_Tim McGnaw]

Don't forget the importance of counter-balancing arm dancing with hip swivels and leg twists, luv. Among my chief sources of inspiration in the development of my own unique style of such dancing was a quote from Patti Smith in Jean Stein and George Plympton's masterful biography of Edie Sedgwick that was published in 1982 (and which I devoured in a single 12-hour sitting) where she described a dancefloor as being "a sea of knees and elbows": all I had to add was a few arm-throws and I was there :biggrin1:

A word to the wise, though: a dancefloor full of arm dancers can be a dangerous place: establish and maintain enough space or someone'll wind up with a black eye

For I'm A Believer, one generally combined a pony-stomp (rather than hip twists), head tosses and shoulder-shimmies with one's arm-tosses.

Blue Monday worked better with shadow-boxing arm dancing rather than throws or tosses.

Two local Boston acts with songs eminently arm dance worthy:

The Atlantics Lonely Hearts
(More guitar-driven New Wave than Synth)
November Group We Dance
(Totally rad Synth)

Have I ever told you the I LOVE YOU!!!!! :biggrin1::wink: We are so going to go dancin and prancin sometime!

I can do that hop skip kick thing that Molly Ringwald did in Breakfast club (what was that called?) while arm dancing, and frankly I think I could give a Blitz kid a run for their money on the dance floor :biggrin1:

 

[nudeyorker]

Thanks for the links, I just did a little dance around the living room.

 

[dannyrankin]

here's a cool example of people arm dancing.... it's a style called tecktonik, which originated out of the french club scene a few years ago....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zU_jMAXeok&playnext_from=TL&videos=SNL1AuBThrE

cool vid

 

[D_Portelay Porquesword]

During the hedonistic 80's, at club Scream in Los Angeles. I saw a hair chicken (his punk hair was so blown out and due to the lack of proper lighting, his hair resembled that of a chicken sitting atop his head) tripping on acid doing the arm flinging dance to Blue Monday.

Must have been some really bad acid for he did not do justice to it at all.

 

[Lex]

This thread makes me miss dancing with Bbucko after dinner and drinks. :frown1:

 

[Bbucko]

Have I ever told you the I LOVE YOU!!!!! :biggrin1::wink: We are so going to go dancin and prancin sometime!

I can do that hop skip kick thing that Molly Ringwald did in Breakfast club (what was that called?) while arm dancing, and frankly I think I could give a Blitz kid a run for their money on the dance floor :biggrin1:

This is an obvious tongue-in-cheek retro-geek vid that simultaneously extols and pokes fun at that Molly Ringwald/Belinda Carlisle hop/kick thing. IRL it was much better done, even by the assorted geeks on Boston's dancefloors 25+ years ago

The back-up dancers here are executing near-perfect hip swiveling, head-tossing, shoulder-shimmying style that we all tried so hard to replicate and surpass (with varying degrees of actual success). By the 2:00 mark, they're even throwing in some really good arm throws; note how they vary between finger snapping and hand clapping: those chicks knew their shit. By 2:25 they're even throwing in that ultra-advanced tough-to-accomplish fusion of the Charleston and the Mashed Potato. It was one of my patented moves.

We are so on for a frenzied night of Dance Fool Dance as soon as we can work out the whole geography thing :kiss:

Thanks for the links, I just did a little dance around the living room.

Hopefully involving some arm action :biggrin1:

During the hedonistic 80's, at club Scream in Los Angeles. I saw a hair chicken (his punk hair was so blown out and due to the lack of proper lighting, his hair resembled that of a chicken sitting atop his head) tripping on acid doing the arm flinging dance to Blue Monday.

Must have been some really bad acid for he did not do justice to it at all.

I'm not sure what the supplies of party favors were like in LA at that time, but to me it sounds more like a bad lot of MDMA.

 

[Bbucko]

This thread makes me miss dancing with Bbucko after dinner and drinks. :frown1:

There'll always be a Boom, darling (even if they insist on calling it Atomic, now). You know how much I look forward to my Lex/Bubba infusions :biggrin1:

 

[HiddenLacey]

I love 'em all Thanks for posting Bbucko!

 

[Bbucko]

I love 'em all Thanks for posting Bbucko!

The pleasure's entirely mine, sweetheart :biggrin1:

Expose could not have performed Come Go With Me if their arms had been tied behind their backs. This is some super-first-class arm swinging (from both elbow and shoulder) mixed with over-the-top head flips and some serious hip gyrations.

Similar to Oh_Yeah's story about some lost soul on a dance floor in LA, my ex Carlos and I went to Orlando in 1986 on vacation. At some point early on in one of our evenings out, the DJ started playing Personal Jesus, and this coked-out queen launched into a near-epileptic fit of arm throwing and leg-kicking (but very little hip action: obviously poor form). Carlos and I looked at each other, rolling eyes simultaneously and vacated the (otherwise deserted) dance area looking for a bartender and a fresh cocktail.

Midnight Oil's original vid for Beds Are Burning has some heavy arm-throwing going on, but what I find funny is how, although seated and attempting to underplay it, the singer still cannot seem to resist some surreptitious elbow-out arm dancing in this live performance. He seems almost guilty about it :tongue:

And I think that Michael Stipe (who is exactly 24 days older than me) shows here how impossible our generation found it to express oneself without the proper arm/shoulder/hand gestures, even if it could hardly be called dancing. He and Kate throw some serious arms here. Ther is some classic arm-tossing at about 2:40 of Losing My Religion, but watch how Michael manipulates (and emotes with) his arms throughout the entire video.

 

[Bbucko]

At one point in the late 80s I lived less than two blocks from Luxor, Boston's answer to a Video Bar, where Jodi Whatley's Still A Thrill was on heavy, nightly rotation. It's interesting to see arm dancing morph into Voguing right before your eyes.

 

[concupisys]

"Ther is some classic arm-tossing at about 2:40 of Losing My Religion, but watch how Michael manipulates (and emotes with) his arms throughout the entire video."

lol.... i remember sinead o'connor doing some similar arm movements in her video for emperor's new clothes.... the 1990's sure were a weird (but fun) time for dancing....

 

[Lex]

Atomic, huh? I love how they just change the name of the place, but nothing else. Its like name drag for gay bars/club.

At one point in the late 80s I lived less than two blocks from Luxor, Boston's answer to a Video Bar, where Jodi Whatley's Still A Thrill was on heavy, nightly rotation. It's interesting to see arm dancing morph into Voguing right before your eyes.

OMFG - how I used to love "Don't You Want Me"

Ahh, the good old days.

 

[Bbucko]

Atomic, huh? I love how they just change the name of the place, but nothing else. Its like name drag for gay bars/club.



OMFG - how I used to love "Don't You Want Me"

Ahh, the good old days.

Well, the large back-lit letters over the door still say Boom, even if all current advertising and web stuff calls it Atomic

That Jodi Whatley CD was played nearly daily at my place for about two years: both my now-ex Carlos and I were obsessed :biggrin1: OBSESSED!

The art direction on her vids was consistently of the highest order, but Don't You Want Me is fierce, still. I also revisited Looking For A New Love and was kinda surprised to see the interracial aspects were so nonchalant. I really should give the 80s more credit than I do about certain things.

But with Jodi, much like Sade, their racial ambiguity only heightened their allure.