No matter how hard I try, I can’t Dougie. Not even close. I should have that Cali swag in me (seeing as I’m from San Francisco), but I can’t do this party staple. Seriously, teach me how to Dougie.

 

But I know when I finally do master it, there will be a new dance to learn. It just may be the The Lonely Island’s ‘The Creep.’ Current mainstream music comes as a packaged deal: a catchy song with a complex dance. Stanky leg, jerkin’, Dougie and the ‘Single Ladies’ dance, just to name a few. Give me a break, my legs can’t move like that.

 

I miss the popular, simple dances anyone used to be able to do. Even if your capacity to dance consists of awkwardly nodding your head to the beat, attempting to break dance or somewhere in between, everyone managed the Cha Cha Slide.

 

‘Slide to the left. Slide to the right. One hop, one hop.’ Sometimes it even switched it up and had multiple hops. And if you somehow missed out on middle school dances or didn’t know any of the moves,the lyrics of the tune literally taught you. You never had to waste time looking for how-to videos on Youtube.

Yes, you risked looking like an idiot when you did the moves. But at least everyone was on the same boat. Now you risk being the odd one out because you’re the only person at the party who can’t Dougie. (Purely hypothetical, of course.)

 

Let’s bring back the good old dances that didn’t require much effort, mental or physical. The simplest, the one that accompanied’Get Low’ by the Ying Yang Twins and Lil Jon. It can’t get much easier than pointing to the window and to the wall.

 

— Compiled by Colleen Bidwill, asst. feature editor, cabidwel@syr.edu

Published on January 29, 2011 at 12:00 pm