The scen: RAZZLES nightclub on the ground floor of the
Richmond VA Best Western. Off, I kid not friends, the "Powhite
Parkway". I was there for a wedding. Apparently RAZZLES is a
destination spot for the young Richmond set. Police cars out
front of the hotel. Dancefloor going mad to the sounds of It
Takes Two, AC/DC, Nelly, etc. Am dancing with the bride to
some crap, blowing bubbles, and suddenly —
a
very Danny Tenaglia-esque tribal techno groove kicks and the
ENTIRE DANCEFLOOR forms into lines and begins dancing the
same dance. Confused, checking our sides to see that our
kidneys are intact, we shrink to the edge, uncomprehending... I
ask the bride what the hell is going on here and she tells me it's
the "CHA CHA DANCE", which sometimes has words over the
top to tell you what to do. Everyone seems to know it; people
rush the dancefloor to get in on the action.
Reminded
me of going out to a club back home in Knoxville a while back
and hearing a TON of tracks for the first time - who let the dogs
out, jumpin jumpin, etc. Am starting to think that New York is not
the cultural ground zero it makes itself out to be - I'm thinking
these things gain a swelling support on the periphery and force
themselves into the spotlight. So the question, readers, is 1)
Has anyone else heard of this damned Cha Cha Dance and
where did you hear it first and 2) why do runaway dance crazes
(macarena, who let dogz out) seem to come from outside the
cultural metropole?
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 1 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
it's the cha cha SLIDE, and the brilliant
absurdist video got played to death on BET a
few months ago. it's a decent song, i
remember thinking the blatant starkness of
the whole thing was refreshing. regardless
of that, the short-lived craze is now
officially dead.
― ethan, Friday, 1 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
I fail to recognize that perhaps the reverse phenom is true - that
BET beams it radially outwards and the provinces go wild? No
hang on, I've found the scoop:
DJ/performer Mr. C,
The Slide Man (aka Casper), a native of the Windy City, created a
new dance called the slide four years ago for a personal trainer
at Bally's Physical Fitness [love to know the story on that one].
But it wasn't until early 2000 that Mr. C made his locally
famous slide into a full-blown song. Convinced that the
song/dance had the potential to become a national hit,
Chicago's premier radio station WGCI [??]
approached
Mr. C about recording an album version of his popular "Slide".
The station helped promote the song with advertising and by
partially financing an instructional dance video.
There you have it. My metropole/periphery binary has predictably
fallen apart. I think
many people's first introduction to
techno and house is via the gym and workout tapes. Which
explains the crowd at Twilo I guess.
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 1 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
two months pass...
Hey all
sorry if my answer is so late, but i just found this thread. i live
in germany, and never heard of this song before - until today. 3
friends of mine heard it somewhere, and loved it right away, and so
did i. but i never really SAW the dance, as the video clip has never
been shown in german television yet, but i am very curious. does
anyone know a link to download this clip?
thx in adance
benjo
― Benjamin Weiland, Wednesday, 22 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link