electric slide

The Electric Slide is a four wall line dance.

A dancer Ric Silver claims that originally it was The Electric, created in 1976 by him for the opening of Vamps Disco in New York at 71st and Broadway. It was choreographed to the international hit song Electric Boogie by Marcia Griffiths written for her by Bunny Wailer who did not copyright the song until 1982. The song was originally released in 1976 and re-released in 1989, when it became a dance craze.

Some other say that the dance was a spin-off of the Texas Freeze with similar steps, created by Ken Engel in 1980.

Steps (a variant)

• 1-4 Grapevine right (tap and clap on 4)
• 5-8 Grapevine left (tap and clap on 8)
• 9-12 Walks back (tap and clap on 12)
• 13-16 Rock forward & back:
  • 13: Left forward
  • 14: Tap right toe at the left heel, clap
  • 15: Right backward
  • 16: Tap left toe at the right heel, snap
• (optional) 17-20 Repeat 13-16
• 21 Left forward with 1/4 turn left
• 22 Hop onto left foot

It takes 44 steps to return to the downbeat (1) and 88 steps to return to your original position. the Electric Slide is actually a variation step - in place of the grapevine - your step right and slide your left foot over to it.

Many people felt that the dance was called The Electric Slide because in the song - the lyrics state "I'll teach you the electric slide" but the slide is actually a variation step and the Dance is called "The Electric" Copyrighted in 1976, Mr Silver registered his choreography in 2003 with the Library of Congress. see http://the-electricslidedance.com or Mr. Silvers homepage at http://the-electricslide.com/id6.html

Variations involve turns during the grapevine and walks back, a spin on 22, various ways of clapping, and type of steps.

Some dance venues teach variations with extra or removed steps to make the dance fit the 4/4 phrasing (with 16(The Freeze),18(The way most have learned the Electric slide) or 24(cowboy motion;cowboy boogie) steps). In fact, according to the author, the "broken" phrasing was a conscious decision. It introduces a certain diversity of accents which makes the pattern less repetitive.

The dance is still done frequently at social occasions to virtually any music.

Cultural references

• Mentioned in the song "It Doesn't Matter" by Wyclef Jean featuring The Rock - "Electric slide on the dancefloor, freaky deaky like Studio 54"
• Mentioned in the song "Family Business" by Kanye West when Kanye is describing the numerous pasttimes of him and his family.
• Mentioned in the song "Takeoff" by Aceyalone - "Dance with the last man on the face of the earth, who did the electric sl-i-i-ide over the verse"
• Mentioned in the song "White Kids Love Hip-Hop" by MC Chris - "If you don't mind, if it's alright with you, I'm gonna get in the electric slide line, just to prove that white kids love hip-hop."
• Featured in the films of Tyler Perry ( http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1347153/ ).
• In the MMORPG World of Warcraft the tauren female characters perform the Electric Slide with the /dance command.

See also

• Cha Cha Slide

External links

• Ric Silver's "The Electric"