Saturday night marked a new sort of spring ritual for about 300 Chicago-area teenagers: a prom night free of hip-grinding dance moves, plunging necklines and racy song lyrics. It was billed as the region’s first-ever Mormon prom, teens from Hebron to Sugar Grove gently swayed under a sparkling disco ball inside a gymnasium in Naperville.

There is just no escape from sex. Dancing is a fun way to deal with it. Although it is not without danger.

One New Year’s Ball in Frankfurt, my British partner and I took the opportunity to claim the almost empty dance floor right after midnight. While most attendants watched the fireworks, we whirled a rapid Viennese waltz, which came to an abrupt end when my partner hit her head with another lady. The other couple had danced counterclockwise, which is a big no no.

Putting a bizarre end to the party, I accompanied my partner to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a concussion. Of course, I had to call her parents the next morning to tell them that the Huns had busted their daughter’s head. Fortunately, they were very gracious.

So if you have to dance round dances at all, make sure that the floor is too packed for anyone to move rapidly. Besides, too much twirling will only simulate the buzz of drunkenness –– supposedly, not that I would know about alcohol.

I am working on a book about american vernacular religion

Worth noting that this strategy of placing Mormonism in historical and contemporary contexts was prevalent throughout the documentary. Too many commentators have insisted on praising or criticizing discrete sections of the documentary without looking at the larger pictures it creates.

I should clarify, for people who don’t know me, that my offer was aimed at scholars who might land here by googling Mormonism and dance because of Terryl Givens’ comments on PBS’s “The Mormons,” or students working on a well defined project. Putting together a package of the resources I’m offering will be expensive for me in terms of my professional time, and my offer was intended as a courtesy to serious researchers, rather than to satisfy idle curiosity. If such a researcher sees this note after the thread has gone stale, the BCC board will probably be willing to pass my email address to you.

Now skanking was a much more tame animal initially. It was the style of dance that got broken out for ska tunes (English Beat, the Specials, Madness, etc). In fact the logo for 2-Tone Records was a mod dude skanking I believe (something like this). But it seems that slamming (the punk version) and skanking (the ska version) have since morphed, much in the way that ska and punk have largely morphed over the years.

Anyhow, as you can imagine, slamming was always broken up by chaperones rather quickly at stake dances. But regular skanking was usually left alone. (Possibly because not enough ska got played even in SoCal to generate much skanking).

Kristen and I chaperoned a youth dance a few years ago and I was tasked to break up a break dancing ring that had formed. Another example of the circle of life I guess…

JNS,
Maybe it was my lack of inhibition that seemed dangerous somehow?