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Written by plui
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Thursday, 02 August 2007 |
Respect to all the dancers out there... B-Boys/Girls, battle dancers, stage dancers, cdm's, or anyone that just likes to bust a move... If dance is your thang u might want to checkout the battles tomorrow at Dino Beach
Back in the day (and I mean waaaay back) there was a few different TV shows that brought a bit of the style and sound of disco, funk, r&b whatevah... out of the clubs and into the living rooms for all to watch.
Shows like Soul Train with host Don Cornelius brought the music to the masses by featuring current stars and (usually lip-synched) performances. A key element of Soul Train, however, was The Line -- a gauntlet of sorts that was formed by 2 rows of people on the dancefloor allowing anyone to walk the line: dance down the middle, It was part fashion show and part dance routine... This vidcap is great because Don Cornelius himself describes The Line, take a look...
Not at all competitive, but a show nonetheless.
OK, more Solid Gold from the vaults. Solid Gold was another Dance Music TV show of the disco era and it featured again performances by the stars and some especially nice Solid Gold Dancers who would do routines while the announcer would count down the Top 10 hits of the week. This all predated MTV keep things in a bit of perspective! Funny thing about Solid Gold was it took its countdown from I dunno, radio airplay charts or Billboard maybe? But some of the songs of that time were not exactly dance songs, like REO Speedwagon? hahhah Anyways, it's all just a bit of flavor.
There were other very big TV shows as well, like American Bandstand with Dick Clark, AT10, Americas Top 10 with Casey Casem, James Brown even had a show Future Shock... But to me, none were so successful in capturing the feeling or vibe of a club and re-producing it on TV than Soul Train, especially during The Line segment.
We bringing it all back YO its 2007. OK, here is footage from last years Soul Train Battle of the Year in Zurich. Again, respect to all the dancers in the Battles at Dino Beach on Friday... Looking forward to see where you're all gonna take it!
Here's a recent interpretation of the line by Wharton University Dancers...
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