Sanjoy Roy writes about dance for the Gaurdian, and observes the rise of dance around the world.
Forget the music - and dance
Popular music has always hogged the limelight, but from festivals to TV popular dance is starting to take the lead
June 26, 2008 8:00 AM
Music is bigger than dance, right? Of course. It's much easier to record, copy, distribute and sell. But quite often with music, I sense dance in the background, the unacknowledged flipside of the musical coin. MTV is called "music television" - and it's full of dance videos. Vast numbers of young people go to clubs on the basis of the music played - and then dance when they get there. From lindy-hop to hip-hop, music styles have often emerged and developed hand in hand with dance styles. But it's music that has generally hogged the limelight.
Dance, though, seems to be coming out of the shadows. The top-rated, top-viewed video on YouTube is The Evolution of Dance, a breezy potted history of popular dance styles - which is also, incidentally, a breezy potted history of popular music, except with dance on top, the way I like it. Elsewhere, kids all over YouTube are showing off their dance moves in a kind of physical karaoke, sometimes on the street, often in their rooms (see "me dancing"). For style and skill, it certainly beats air guitar. And on broadcast media, social dance has broken into mainstream television, with the Strictly Come Dancing format going global.
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I think Youtube can take a lot of credit for raising the awareness and appreciation of dance by allowing people to quickly and easily share dance moves around the world. Youtube is seriously rocking our world!
