posted
A friend of mine invited me to a Mormon dance at the Concord stake. I'm pretty excited, but not really sure what exactly a Mormon dance is... I mean, clearly its a dance, but he said:
quote:If you want to come to the dance, it's church dress, meaning (for guys) slacks, white shirt, and a tie, and (for girls) a knee-length or longer skirt (preferably longer), no flip-flops, and a modest (aka not low-cut front or back and doesn't have straps) shirt.
And then we'll boogie down, Mormon style.
So my question is, am I allowed to have open-toed sandal-like heals, or should I try to find shoes that aren't open toe? Also, a bit curious as to what sort of dancing / music I should be expecting.
I'll let you all know how it went when I get back afterwards!
posted
Think of every pop song that has no swearing.
Like....
Who Let The Dogs Out Cotten Eyed Joe is definately going to be played. I garauntee it. Electric Slide Probably Avril Lavigne. I don't know. Been a while. YMCA is another definate. Ever dance I ever went to it was played. There will be some swing played, but only 5 couples will know how to really swing. Every one else will just sort of swing their arms out and touch caddy corner shoulders altnernating. U2 will be played. Backstreet Boys, maybe NSync Whatever boy band is popular.
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posted
I thought the whole point of that movie was that it took one guy without a tie, slacks, and a white shirt to show the other kids how to boogie.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
You can boogie. Just no, you know, dirty dancing.
I'm a little surprised at the dress code myself. Surely that stake doesn't require "church dress" at every dance? We were more casual, although still in keeping with standards of "modesty".
And they will probably play all kinds of music that could be taken two ways ... I guess assuming that it's up to everyone in the building to take it the "clean" way. Sometimes they're expert at drawing very fine lines. When I was younger they used to play George Michael's "I Want Your Sex", but only the first verse, up until the point where he actually said "I want your sex," at which point they immediately changed it over to another song. As if all of us didn't know what lyrics came next. Some of them prefer to go very specifically by the letter of the law and push things as far as they can go without technically stepping over the line, instead of following the spirit of keeping the music appropriate. I guess there are those kind in every religion.
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posted
All I know is I hate wearing ties, love dancing, and mixing the two together just seems like something that goes against hte laws of nature or something.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Storm Saxon: All I know is I hate wearing ties, love dancing, and mixing the two together just seems like something that goes against hte laws of nature or something.
Dance competitions wouldn't be your thing, then.
I have fond memories of the Stake dances I went to when I was a teenager. They were always so much more fun than the ones we have here. They play too much hip-hop music at this college. That stuff just drives me up a wall.
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Just about every dance here is church dress. Just the way it goes. Open toes should be fine. We're not that conservative!
By boogie down "Mormon Style" they are probably talking about having a good time while looking stupid and no one cares! My husband and I chaperoned the New Year's Eve dance and we were sad to see that most of the music played was very difficult to dance to. But there are some good classics still played from our youth days, such as "Love Shack" and "500 Miles."
A few Mormon dance rules to keep in mind: 1. If someone asks you to dance, it's expected you will politely say yes. 2. If you dance closer than "Book of Mormon space apart," the chaperones may come and reprimand you!
In any case, they are a fun way to socialize and I hope you have a great time. They were some of my favorite times in highschool.
Boris, I totally agree about YSA dances. It's all hip-hop and techno, and hardly any slow songs! It's much harder to meet and talk to new people. I hated them.
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posted
I really didn't know there was any hidden meaning to who let the dogs out. Its just been played in movies at all the most annoying times when dogs are involved that I just figured it was a couple of guys asking who let the dogs out? Who. Who who.
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posted
My SIL thought it was really about dogs. I tend to think it's about men who behave like dogs. But I still don't hear anything so subversive or perverted in it that I'd turn it off.
Maybe I don't know the lyrics well enough. Posts: 1522 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:But there are some good classics still played from our youth days, such as "Love Shack" and "500 Miles."
At the parties I went to, that's the kind of dance music they played when they wanted everyone to leave.
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posted
And the flip flop thing evidently doesn't apply everywhere. I see flip flops at church all the time during the summer. In fact, it was the sight of our chorister in a casual faded denim skirt and black-and-fluorescent flip flops which led me to decide that "If she can wear THAT to church and get away with it, then I can certainly wear my elegant swooshy black dress pants with heels." So I did. Nobody cared. Posts: 1512 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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posted
Just memorise the first 15 seconds of this dance. I'm pretty sure it's one of those things you can do over and over and over and over and over and over and over again with no-one noticing that you're just repeating yourself.
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posted
Wait until you get invited to an Orthodox Jewish dance! Dress for men: black pants, white shirt, black coat, black hat. Dress for women: skirt to ankles, long sleeves, high neck. Dance: men dance with men, in a circle. Women dance with women, in a circle. The men and women are either in separate rooms, or in the same room with a screen separating the two.
Like, someone's at the door and the people inside are asking who it is. And it's apparently someone the guy doesn't like so he says, let the dogs out, as in to drive the guy at the door away?
I heard that from somewhere..
Posts: 147 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
500 Miles always seemed like the Ultimate Stalker Song to me and would crack me up. Who the heck would walk 500 miles and fall down at your door?
Can't you just see this bloodshot, grizzled, wild-eyed man stinking to high Heaven passed out at your doorstep? You'd have to put a clothespin on your nose to keep the smell out while you called the cops!
AJ (who still enjoyed the song)
Posts: 11265 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
LOL, When everyone said "500 Miles", I thought they were talking about the song that goes; "If you miss the train I'm on, you will know that I am gone, you can hear the whistle blow 500 miles"
And I kept thinking, how can you dance to THAT!
Posts: 2425 | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote:Originally posted by LadyDove: LOL, When everyone said "500 Miles", I thought they were talking about the song that goes; "If you miss the train I'm on, you will know that I am gone, you can hear the whistle blow 500 miles"
And I kept thinking, how can you dance to THAT!
Me too. Golly, you must be as old as, I dunno, uh, me.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
Lyrics to "Who Let the Dogs Out," Exhibit A for "why this song should not be part of a Mormon dance, leaving aside its complete lack of redeeming qualities:"
quote: Well, the party was nice, the party was jumpin' And everybody havin' a ball; I tell the fellas "start the name callin'" And the girls report to the call: The poor dog show down.
Who let the dogs out? (woof, woof, woof, woof) Who let the dogs out?(woof, woof, woof, woof) ...
I see ya' little speed boat head up our coast; She really want to skip town. Get back off me, beast! Off me. Get back, you flea-infested monger.
I'm gonna tell To any girls calling them canine, Tell the dummy, "Hey man, it's part of the party!" You fetch a women in front and her man's behind; Her bone runs out now.
Say, A doggy is nuttin' if he don't have a bone. All doggy, hold ya' bone; all doggy, hold it. A doggy is nuttin' if he don't have a bone. All doggy, hold ya' bone; all doggy, hold it.
Wait for y'all, my dogs, the party is on. I gotta get my girl; I got my mind on. Do you see the rays comin' from my eye? What could you be, friend? That Benji, man, that's breakin' them down? "Me and my white short-shorts." And I can't seek a lot, any canine will do; I'm figurin' that's why they call me faithful. 'Cause I'm the man of the land: When they see me they doah-ooooo(howl)
The song lacks a surfeit of righteousness.
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posted
The choice of particular "questionable" songs is more about community involvement than danceability or lyrics; although I am equally surprised about Who Let the Dogs Out. With YMCA, for instance, it is an LDS dance tradition to do specific moves at particular points in the song. Everyone, regardless of dance partners or groups or all alone, will act on those moves. I suspect that "Who Let the Dogs Out" has similar periods within the song where the group acts out particular movmements or vocalizations.
Expect two or three line dances, and not all of them Country Music inspired.
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It was a lot of fun (good clean fun I might add), and most of the songs you mentioned were in fact played. (Although the debated Who Let the Dogs Out wasn't one of them.) Apparently the DJ takes requests by e-mail up to two weeks before the dance so he has time to check the lyrics before playing the song at the dance.
As for dress code, it was both formal and casual at the same time. People were wearing nice skirts, dress pants, ties, etc, but there were also cowboy hats and a lot of bare feet.
One last thanks to Divaesefani for warning me about dancing "Book of Mormon space apart" - I wouldn't have thought of that, but having it in mind was very helpful, both for slow dances and throughout.
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quote:Originally posted by LadyDove: LOL, When everyone said "500 Miles", I thought they were talking about the song that goes; "If you miss the train I'm on, you will know that I am gone, you can hear the whistle blow 500 miles"
And I kept thinking, how can you dance to THAT!
Me too. Golly, you must be as old as, I dunno, uh, me.
I did too. And I'm young. Pratically a baby. Twenty. Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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Sometimes they're expert at drawing very fine lines. When I was younger they used to play George Michael's "I Want Your Sex", but only the first verse, up until the point where he actually said "I want your sex," at which point they immediately changed it over to another song. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
As if all of us didn't know what lyrics came next. Some of them prefer to go very specifically by the letter of the law and push things as far as they can go without technically stepping over the line, instead of following the spirit of keeping the music appropriate. I guess there are those kind in every religion.
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