Freak Dance example essay topic

Saturday night, May 15, 2004, was Lemoore High School's prom. As Lemoore principal Jim Bennett looked around the dance floor, he saw most of the guys dancing behind their dates, grinding their hips against the girls as the girls gyrated back against them. They were freak-dancing, which is how most people dance to hip-hop, but Mr. Bennett had always felt it was too sexual for a school event. 'It's [the same as] foreplay,' he says. During the last song of the night, a girl got on all fours and rubbed her butt against her date's groin. Mr. Bennett was horrified: That's it, he thought to himself, I have to stop this!

So at the start of the next school year, he announced that freak dancing would be banned at all future dances. SELF-EXPRESSION At 9 p.m. on Saturday, December 11, Lemoore seniors Kelley Cast adio and her best friend, Kay De Nylon, both 17, walked into their winter formal with their dates. All fall, Kelley and Kay De had been looking forward to their first senior formal. 'Lemoore is a small town, and there's not much to do on Saturday nights,' says Kelley. 'So it's a big thing to have a dance. ' And dances, Kay De adds, are 'one of our school's only traditions.

' At 9: 30, the DJ put on Nelly's 'Hot in Here. ' Almost all of the 400 students on the dance floor immediately began freak-dancing-and Mr. Bennett walked right over to the DJ. 'Stop the music,' he said as he took the mic. 'Ladies, gentlemen,' he announced sternly, 'if you continue freak-dancing, there will be no more dances. ' Some of the students booed Mr Bennett as he gave the mic back to the DJ, who turned the music up. But since Kay De, Kelley, and their friends had always danced that way to hip-hop music, they couldn't believe Mr. Bennett would carry out his threat-so they kept on freak-dancing.

SCHOOL RULE On Monday morning, Kay De was at her school's career center when she noticed the weekly newsletter for the staff. 'Freak dancing is... obscene!' she read in Mr. Bennett's column. All dances were going to be called off, he had written, unless students came up with a plan to stop the freak dancing. 'I couldn't believe that he was serious,' Kay De says. 'That's just how we dance-like my parents used to do the twist!' She and Kelley had been elected to plan the Sadie Hawkins dance in February, and if Mr. Bennett was really banning freak dancing, she began to worry that no one would come. That afternoon, Kay De and Kelley got the Sadie committee together to talk about the possible ban.

'I'd still rather have Bennett limit how we dance than take the dances away completely,' Kay De said. 'It's the only way we " ll get to have a prom. ' The other students thought Mr. Bennett's new rule was like unfair censorship, but they agreed with Kay De. The next day, the committee typed up a formal memo to Mr. Bennett, asking if he'd reinstate the Sadie dance if students signed a contract on the back of their tickets promising not to freak-dance.

If anyone broke the rules, they'd have to leave. Three weeks later, on January 11, 2005, Mr. Bennett got on the loudspeaker: 'We can have the Sadie dance,' he said. 'But there will be rules. ' Then Mr. Bennett went on to read Kay De and Kelley's proposal.

It;'s better than nothing, the girls told themselves. FAIR COMPROMISE? On Saturday, February 26, the Sadie Hawkins dance was held in Lemoore's cafeteria-and Kay De's fear came true: About a third of the students didn't show up. 'A lot of people were like, 'If we can't dance how we want, why bother [coming]?' ' Kay De says. 'Even though my date came, he refused to dance. ' But to Mr. Bennett, the dance was a success-and he allowed the prom to be scheduled.

On April 23, 2005, the usual number of students gathered for Lemoore's prom. But when the DJ started playing hip-hop, a few kids started freak-dancing-and five were forced to leave, including Jon Green, 18, and his girlfriend. 'I guess we were freaking,' Jon says. 'But to me we were just dancing! I mean, it's not like we were doing anything sexual. ' Jon's friend, Jared Benson, 17, who stayed behind at the prom, adds angrily, 'Everybody looks forward to prom, but we were bored-we couldn't dance how we wanted.

Our dances are ruined now. '.