Gangnam is good, but check out the grass.
I believe Colleen Simard, a First Nations columnist from Winnipeg who contributes a regular column to Troy Media and the Winnipeg Free Press, has struck on a good concept.
Simard, an Ojibway (Anishinabe), suggested that while South Korea's latest dancing wizard who goes by the name of Psy has captured the imagination of music lovers and dancers worldwide thanks to Internet connections that I believe started with YouTube, we might rightly have a burgeoning dance craze of our own, right here on the Canadian Prairies.
Gangnam-style dance moves are just fine she suggests, but what about an A-pop style?
I think she has something there.
A few adaptive powwow dance moves might just go down positively on the international circuit if they were just promoted actively outside First Nations circles.
Simard points out as one example, there are some wonderfully addictive moves in the popular First Nations grass dance that could be translated onto the dance floors in Germany, France, Spain, South Korea, and well ... anywhere. OK, not in Saudi Arabia, but you get the idea.
I've observed these dances, and frankly, I find them more than fascinating. There is something about powwow drumming, singing and dancing that is hypnotic.
I know, I'm a typical white guy with no rhythm. You won't see me jiving to the Basin Street Blues any time soon, but I do understand and appreciate the fun that is found in Gangnam-style and I certainly see the merits in grass dance or a lot of other traditional First Nations dance movements that could be borrowed and yes, probably abused in the name of fun and frolic with no real harm intended.
I have often said that there are two kinds of music I don't hear enough of and one is the plaintive pow-wow drumming and vocals and the other is the Caribbean pan music. In fact one of the highlights of my misspent youth was gaining the privilege of "pushing pan" for a Caribbean steel band that headed out into the streets on J'Ouvert morning, the first day of Carnival in Trinidad after an entire night of partying and dancing. I don't know if they still stick to the old rules, but in those days, none of the parade participants including musical groups were allowed to be moved along by motorized devices like trucks or tractors. The brilliantly costumed characters in theme designs were self-powered as were the huge steel drum calypso bands that accompanied each entry. So we pushed those big racks of musical oil drums through Port-of-Spain down to the Savannah for the musical bomb out competition and we sweated and chipped along and pushed pan for about a mile or more and enjoyed every musical moment.
So why not a little gangnam, grass dance, calypso combination?
Hey, Michael's moon walk was a pretty simple move, wasn't it? And what the heck, we've humiliated ourselves with chicken dances, hokey pokeys and the twist. What could be worse than those?
I think Simard and company are on to something. Anyone willing to try a little breakthrough song and choreography?
