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Electric Slide




A dancer, Ric Silver created it and states that originally it was The Electric, created in 1976 by him for the re-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 .


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, Snap

  • --- 15: Right backward

  • --- 16: Tap left toe at the right heel, clap

  • 17-20 Repeat 13-16

  • 21 Left forward with 1/4 turn left

  • 22 Hop onto left foot with right leg in the air to start again


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 — you 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 dance is called "The Electric" and was copyrighted in 1976. Silver registered his video of the dance in 2003 with the Library of Congress.see http://the-electricslidedance.com or Mr. Silvers homepage at http://the-electricslide.com/id6.html It was published to the web (Tripod.com) in 1994 and copyright was submitted in 2006.

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. This is soon to change. 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 Electric Slide is visually similar to the traditional folk 'brassle' step but has the addition of front and back movement to the traditional lateral line.


CULTURAL REFERENCES

  • Mentioned in the song "It Doesn't Matter" by ."

  • Mentioned in the song "Family Business" by Kanye West when Kanye is describing the numerous pastimes 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."

  • Mention in the song "Move It Like This" by Baha Men : "Jump back and the do the twist, and the electric slide."

  • Featured during the closing credits of the 1999 film '' The Best Man ''.

  • Featured in the films of Tyler Perry. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1347153/

  • Featured in "The Replacements" with Keanu Reeves; "The Best Man"; "The Super" with Joe Pechi; "The Parkers" TV show; Saturday night at The Apollo.

  • In the MMORPG World Of Warcraft the Tauren female characters perform the Electric Slide with the /dance command.

  • Rapper Unk has a modified version called the "2 Step."

  • Rapper RZA AKA Bobby Digital mentions it in the track "la rhumba": "you make a club o' thugs do the electric slide"

  • On Black20 News {Link without Title} July 25 , 2007



LAWSUITS

On February 3, 2007, CNET reported that the creator of the ''Electric Slide'' had started filing DMCA -based takedown notices to YouTube users who were posting videos of people performing the dance incorrectly.1

On March 01, 2007, The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against the man who claims to have created the popular line dance ''The Electric Slide,'' asking the court to protect the Free Speech rights of a Videographer who captured a few steps of the dance in a Documentary video posted to the Internet .2

On May 22, 2007, the EFF came to an agreement to settle the lawsuit filed on March 01, 2007 against Ric Silver. The agreed settlement states that Mr. Silver will license the Electric Slide under a Creative Commons license 3 and to also post the new license on any of his current or future websites that mention the Electric Slide. EFF agreed to see that all uses of The Electric Slide reference Mr. Silver's name as Choreographer.


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