Let's Dance

I have done the "Time Warp". It's just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right with a pelvic thrust that really drives you insane. The instructions are so easy that I was able to perform without multiple viewings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". This is what amounts to a dance craze for my generation. I have always been a little jealous of folks who grew up in the fifties and sixties, new step-by-step dance instruction records came out once a week back then.
This was part of the creative impetus behind John Water's "Hairspray", and it is what makes America strong. The Watusi. The Twist. The Mashed Potato. Even Brad's favorite, The Madison gave us all hope that our barely coordinated bodies might become unified in a groove as one, even if it was just for two and a half minutes. The Hullly Gully. The Frug. The list seems endless, and it brings to mind a simpler time when we lived in fear of communists and the bombs that the would never use, instead of terrorists and the bombs that they continue to use with alarming frequency.
Of course there are the sad exceptions to this view: The Lambada, The Electric Slide, The Dreaded Macarena. All of these only served to point out the desperation of our culture. The appeal of those dances from forty years ago was their disposable nature. A craze isn't just calculated marketing, there has to be some soul to begin with. Like the Geeb. Way back in the early 1980's, my friend Darren started doing a weird wobbly version of the twist to a Little Feat song, "Old Folks Boogie". He would totter back on his heels, hands moving in very deliberate, measured arcs around his waist. He used to invite people passing by his dorm room to join him. After a few weeks, he became a little more gregarious, calling out to everyone, "Come on everybody, do the Geeb!"
All year long, and into he summer, we did the Geeb. And when Darren passed away much too early, we did the Geeb at his wake. Since then, my wife has encouraged me to learn to waltz, and she suggests that salsa dancing might enliven some of our old married couple evenings. But I'm still waiting for the next big wave. Until then, let's Geeb!