JASA SANTOS Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Thursday, April 3, 2008 12:00 am
Tammy McGuire was shocked at what she saw last year on the dance floor at Natrona County High School.
Students were "bumping and grinding," a sexually suggestive style of dance that has enjoyed a popular comeback among with the younger generation.
"When you see it for the first time, it's pretty wow," said McGuire, who is a teacher at NC. "That's normal to them. That's appropriate to them."
The definition of bumping and grinding varies, though it usually has sexual undertones. According to a post on Urbandictionary.com, bumping and grinding is, "the action of dancing which requires the buttocks to tease the groin of the partner in which the dancer is dancing with."
Natrona County and Kelly Walsh high schools offer free dance classes to their students a few weeks before a big dance as a way to encourage appropriate dancing.
McGuire suggested NC offer the classes this year after her daughter, a Kelly Walsh student, talked about how fun her school's dance classes were.
"I had been saying for a couple years that we needed to teach them to dance," McGuire said. "We didn't really approve of the style of dance, and we wanted to be able to give them the opportunity to dance another way."
The dances students learn include a fair share of shimmying and shaking. But students know the choreographed steps are an effort to curb any dirty dancing.
"I think that's the idea," said Kelly Walsh sophomore Megan Jones. "But it doesn't really work."
And while teachers comment on inappropriate dancing, "they don't really seem to stop it at all," said fellow sophomore Audrey Stevens
Megan, Audrey and their dates said students will still bump and grind come prom night, though learning to bust a few new moves is never a bad idea.
"It is still fun," Audrey said. "You do (use) some of the dances."
Sherri Parmely, the dance teacher at Kelly Walsh on Tuesday night, said part of the reason students dance dirty is because they haven't been shown how to dance properly.
"They don't have the knowledge to dance without bumping and grinding," Parmely said. "They just need some teaching."
Offering dance classes throughout school year would give students a chance to really learn some moves, she said. But at least students will pick up enough in a few weeks to line dance or bar swing with their dates when they want to.
"They're not going to do the bumping and grinding all the time," Parmely said.
For students, their style of dancing is just a part of the MTV culture they've grown up in. Some see it as a sort of fad that will eventually pass.
"You'll see," said Kelly Walsh senior Steven Salvador. "Everybody just needs to wait a generation. The next generation will see us dancing with each other, and they'll be like, 'Oh, we're dancing far away from each other.'"
Reach education reporter Jasa Santos at (307) 266-0593 or at Jasa.Santos@trib.com.