A Wrinkle in Silver

This is a tale of woe, of danger, of courage, and of dreams.

That sounds like this is going to be a best seller or something like that. Fan fiction, maybe. But it will be real life. I feel like a part of this has been told before but the desire to do something now grows. Spoiler alert: There’s no woe here. And there’s a danger of maybe twisting an ankle. Maybe?

Circa 1999, a phenomenon known as Dance Dance Revolution (also known as DDR) was released to arcades in North America. It was already making waves in Japan where it was released the year prior. It’s an arcade cabinet with two large 4 direction step pads (think the d-pad on modern controllers but scaled up to step on) and late 90’s dance music pounding out of the speakers.

The game had you stepping on the appropriate direction as arrows fell down from top to bottom on the screen, in time with the high energy beat.  See that left arrow? Step on the left pad. Down arrow? Down pad. It’s a pretty simple music game. The songs were short but it was tough to stop. Except the whole being out of breath part. That usually caused a stoppage.

It was a hit and eventually, it started to come out to the current gen consoles at the time, namely the PlayStation. Suddenly, instead of dumping quarters at the arcade, spraying sweat on little Bobby and the one on-duty arcade employee, you could dance to your favorite beats at home.

Fast forward a bit because we didn’t have a PlayStation. What can I say, I was a Nintendo fan boy at the time (I regret nothing). In 2004, Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix was released to the Xbox. I picked it up. I marked this the point when I got interested in dance. DDR was my gateway drug.

Before 2004/5, it was rare to see me cut a rug, shake a tale feather, or just plain old dance. It was just always that self conscience thing with me, looking off from what I thought was normal. With the home version of DDR, one could look however you want. The TVs back then didn’t judge. Now a days, don’t you dare look side eyed at them.

Using DDR as a stepping pad (see what I did there?), I developed some basic rhythm. I mean, it was pretty basic. With this basic stuff, I had tried other things. Most notably, swing dance. East coast and lindy hop. I took me some classes which had me going to Seattle. Yeah, I drove to Seattle to learn how to dance. And parked! Don’t ever forget that part!

The classes never gelled for me because of course they didn’t. You got to use a skill to remember how to perform it. I see you there, Japanese, piano, and a slew of technologies, all hanging out with swing dance. Having fun with the cool kids who actually stuck with it.

Stopping with swing didn’t stop the need to flail around. I have played various versions of Just Dance and Dance Central, both via the Kinect on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Dance Central was good to learn choreography, repeating the same movements in time with the beat. I wasn’t great but it was my main exercise for a while. It was better than running.

As of late, dancing has been relegated to once every few months, going to a local bar, to listen to one of the local cover bands, belting out the latest danceable songs such as “Uptown Funk” and “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” and various Ke$ha songs. Because why not. I don’t do it enough to be considered exercise any more, though. People are going to start to think I don’t really have a garden hose wrapped around my midsection.

There’s one type of dance activity which I have been interested in doing as of late. And that is the group choreography. What started this blog was this video.

This is a dance video done in cosplay featuring an end song from My Hero Academia. It’s certainly amateurish, but that’s not the point. It was a group effort to pull off a cool video. If you stay to watch the whole 10 minutes, you’ll see behind the scenes. There was fun, excitement, and most certainly a sense of completion.

It’s possible that this desire to do such a routine had started to seep into my subconscious after falling into my favorite J-pop group, Perfume. They are known for their dance routines and electronic beats. They have been active for over 10 years and have so many routines they seem to execute flawlessly.

 

 

World Order is another group that can perform great routines such as this one for “Machine Civilization”

 

Is it a lifelong dream to do a dance routine with other people who are as excited as you? Probably not the dance thing but I think doing a thing with others that share your passion would be fantastic. I know on several times, while out watching one of the local bands, thinking to myself that those folks up on stage look like they are having fun. Why not me? (I’m lazy…shhhhh, don’t tell anybody.)

So for 2018 and 2019 (if I’m being a realist), I’m going to start finding those others who would enjoy the challenge of performing as a unit before a captive audience. Or a camera. Are you someone who thinks this is a good idea? Let’s talk. Have the courage to do what you want cause tomorrow may just be another day.