Dance Makes the Clothes; Humans Make the Dance

I’ve been thinking lately about clothing and dance. Two of my favorite subjects. Add makeup and you have the Holy Triumvirate. No makeup today, although I did have someone ask me lately about fake tan so at some point I will write about that. Hey…it’s important. No hose in the summer is a Good Thing. And the artificial glow is so nice for covering a less than perfect surface… but I digress.

This post will contain much about dance and clothing, and how they intersect. Did you ever think about why people dress differently for every sort of dance? For example, country western line dancers and two steppers all keep their upper bodies very still; their posture is foxtrot perfect. Why? Maybe because you can’t dip your head AND wear a cowboy hat. In rockabilly the steps are tiny, perhaps because many rockabilly chicks wear tight pencil skirts. In salsa the skirts are full, short, and swishy to accommodate moving hips. Ballroom dresses for the waltz are long and flowy to show off graceful movements. Lindy clothes are loose and full, because of the jumps and speed of the dance.

Interesting, don’t you think?

If you haven’t gathered by now, Gary and I are very much into dancing our own way. We want every dance we do to be our own, which means we will always modify and create steps and sequences. Sometimes we go so far in this that the dance becomes something else instead; I don’t know exactly when this happens, perhaps when we decide to name it. For example, within our regular WCS we have added many hip hop steps and hustle moves but we still call it WCS, and it looks like it. But…we’ve also created a WCS style that is quite Latin in feel…we do it to cha cha music mostly, but also rock and roll tunes with a Latin feel. Gary dubbed it the West Coast Cha.

What is it, exactly? Mostly it’s attitude; we strut instead of walk, roll the shoulders, throw the hips out more. We’ve added some Latin moves, such as a hip shimmy at the end of the basic WCS, a regulation cha cha cha instead of an entire WCS basic, a samba hop during a cross body lead, and lots of girl Latin bling which I save mostly for the West Coast Cha. Note: Girl bling can be Latin, hip hop, jazz, belly dancing stylings…perhaps that should warrant another post. Anyway.

So if clothes and dance go together, what does one wear to do the West Coast Cha? WCSers usually wear very casual clothing in their native habitat; jeans and tight tops for the ladies, cool shirts and jeans for the men is an often seen look. Latin clothing is MUCH more flamboyant; many women wear short salsa dresses and men don nice pants and flowy tops. For our West Coast Cha then, I’m thinking because it is the WCS at its core and thus the moves are somewhat athletic, jeans would be good. Then add, perhaps, a frilly top, but close fitting…gotta show off those hip rolls.

So…did a particular dance evolve around the clothing, or vice versa? Probably no one knows, and it really doesn’t matter, but I’m guessing if the fashion of the day did not fit the dance then it was modified, just like my outfit of choice for the West Coast Cha. Humans adapt stuff to fit their needs and dancers are no exception, whether that’s a better skirt to swing in, modifying a step to fit individual needs, or creating a new dance.

I think it’s so wonderful to know that not only are there a myriad of dances already in existence to learn, there are even more that you can create yourself. What a fabulous, endless sport the world of dance is. Sigh.