Do the Huddle!

Those of us over 40 remember the dance classic by Van McCoy: The Hustle. In those days, even if you were making up the steps as you went along instead of following someone's choreography, you needed at least six or eight square feet of dance floor space. Even today...if you're over the age of 18, apparently.

On Saturday at band camp, they had DJ night. The chaperones were naturally on hand to make sure the kids didn't leave the event unsupervised, and to do crowd control including separating couples who were a little too zealous with their bumping and grinding etc.

I was fully prepared to listen to some selections that I don't exactly consider to be music, such as rap with a drum machine beat...but I was NOT prepared to witness what today's teens consider proper dance floor form.

Think of the last time you went to a bar or bat mitzvah and they played Hava Nagila. Remember what it's like when everyone runs into the center and screams? OK, now picture everyone in the center, but standing there calmly, sort of like a football huddle without the strategizing. A dance floor posse, if you will. "Music" is played, and the teenagers either jump up and down or they pulsate in place. Occasionally a few will get jiggy wid it and will run screaming around the circle...but then they are reabsorbed into the mix. This went on continuously for the entire event, almost two hours. What the...???

It isn't often that I feel like a fossil, but now I know I'm not really a kid anymore...or maybe the definition of "kid" has been changed without my knowledge...