http://my.hsj.org http://my.hsj.org en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Thu, 20 Jun 2013 05:38:39 GMT 15 By Peter DeJonge
A week and a half ago, Principal Jenny Fee and Vice Principal Glenn Mitcham organized a spontaneous student council meeting in response to the style of dance at Homecoming. The back-to-front style of dancing, or “grinding”, is causing more than a few students of all grades to feel uncomfortable. A few informed parents and faculty members also raised concerns over the trend because they believe it is unfair for students to pay admission for a school event like Homecoming and not be able to enjoy it. In an attempt to explain and discuss these concerns with the students, Mitcham and Fee arranged a casual meeting for the representatives to respond to the issue. Both of them stressed the honest and non-judgmental atmosphere of the conference. The first topic raised was simply asking for an initial reaction of the students. “What do you think about this EGR Style of dancing?” Right away, many students disagreed with the term “EGR Style” in reference to grinding, since other schools have issues with the same style of dance. In fact, the students that had previously attended dances at other schools felt that dancing there was much worse than at East. When Fee and Mitcham brought up the possibility of regulations at dances to prevent grinding, students rejected the idea. For one, they are not extremely submissive; many students would rebel against the policy. The school would not be able to kick all of them out of the dance because it would encourage less attendance at future dances. Tickets sold for Homecoming, Valentines, and Prom are among the top sources of revenue for the school and less attendance would financially damage the school. The following question was, “Does certain music promote this freak-dancing?” After initially mocking the term “freak-dancing”, most of the council agreed that the music does promote grinding. The environment of the dance also is a factor; as close together as students remain throughout the two hours, there is really no other way to dance. It was suggested that instead of banning freak-dancing, simply replacing the usual R&B music with other genres could alleviate the situation. However, everyone felt that the other popular genre of techno would be too exhausting if played during the majority of the dance. After a few more questions during the hour, the conclusion seemed to be that only the students could determine a solution to grinding. If students do not feel comfortable dancing that way, they only have to walk away from the situation. They should not feel pressured to freak-dance but instead remain with a group of friends that feels the same way. And as long as the dancing does not progress to the point where it is commonly referred to as “sex with clothes on,” there is no effective way to completely eliminate grinding at the dances. ]]> Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:33:00 GMT