Controversy is heating up regarding the way teens are dancing these days. One Argyle, TX, parent saw her first “freak dance” four years ago when chaperoning a high school dance attended by her freshman daughter.
A boy was up close to a girl’s back, bumping and grinding to the pounding beat of the music. “I thought, ‘That’s just dadgum nasty,’” she said. “It really had me sick to my stomach.”
She broke up the dance, thinking school employees seemed oblivious, but that no longer seems to be the case. A new resolve by school officials in this Dallas suburb aims to crack down on sexually suggestive dancing, as well as skimpy clothing – and sparked a debate over what boundaries should be set for teenagers’ self-expression. Argyle joins a long list of other U.S. schools that have banned the hip-hop inspired dancing known as “grinding” or “freak dancing.”
In Argyle, some parents blame new school superintendent, Jason Ceyanes, 35, for ruining their children’s homecoming dance by enforcing a strict dress code and making provocative dancing off-limits. Disgusted, most students left, and the dance ended early.
Ceyanes said he is concerned clothing styles and sexually-charged dancing is a safety concern for students. He even held a community meeting to play videos from YouTube demonstrating freak dancing, adding that he couldn’t imagine many fathers being OK with their daughters dancing that way.
Many parents support Ceyanes, but others say they should be trusted to dance and dress the way they want, even turning to the Internet to search public records for personal details of Ceyanes’ past, even going so far as to blog about his divorce, previous marriage, and fatherhood at age 17.
Ceyanes has concentrated his energies on meeting parents, school staff, and student advisers to find common ground. He has acknowledged the dress code he inherited, which calls for three-inch-wide shoulder straps and no exposed back, is too strict for formal dances. Proposed new rules still bar cleavage but would allow strapless dresses.
One of the more outspoken parents still disagrees and said she spent $400 for her daughter’s dress, only for her leave the dance because it was such a dud.
Students defend their dancing, blaming the disagreement on the same sort of generation gap that turned Elvis Presley’s swiveling hips into a public controversy in 1956. Many teens say they realize grinding might look erotic, but insist it’s just dancing, not sex.
Ceyanes has appointed an assistant high-school principal to recruit dance instructors from local studios and universities to demonstrate what’s appropriate and what’s not for a school dance.
Deejays are developing strategies, too, such as switching to disco or rock ‘n’ roll, when they see kids getting too worked up. Some change the pace with line dance or a limbo contest.
Instead of canceling dances as some schools have done, Ceyanes wants to try again, and has scheduled another “Winter Dance” in December to see whether his dancing demos have helped the kids find a less freaky way to move.
