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Blazing Babies:
The Birth of a Dance and the Torch Generation
photos by Megan McQuade

Journal entry: February 11, 1976, Girl Scouts Valentine dance
Phil is so cute! I ran into the bathroom two times, 'cuz I kept chickening out. Two boys asked me to dance. I joined the Bump line with Elizabeth, Carolyn, and two boys. I was doing The Bump with a cute stranger. 'Sharon,' said Elizabeth, 'this is Phil.' 'Hi,' he said. 'Hi,' I repeated. I liked him already.

You know how when you do The Bump, you swing your arms? Well, during the "The Locomotion," we lifted our arms around each others' shoulders. I didn't know what to do, so I did it, too. Me and Phil did The Bump so well! Then this other girl and her partner joined in. Since I was on the end of the line, I was now kinda in the middle. I liked just me and Phil on the end, with his arm around my waist and my arm around his neck. But not now! This guy who just joined couldn't keep rhythm, so The Bump line was ruined.

When it was over, Elizabeth immediately pulled Phil away from me and started dancing a slow dance-his arms around her waist, her arms around his neck. You know, real close, pressed together. How dare her! He was the cutest guy there!

Story Assignment: September 13, 2002, Chronogram
I'm writing about a dance called "Torch." The idea came to a local dentist in a dream. I've just witnessed "The Birth of Torch" at a dress rehearsal around a bonfire. But instead of moving in a line from side to side-hip to hip like in my youth-the teens were moving in a line from front to back-groin to groin, butt to groin, and butt to butt. Torches blazed, burning batons whirled, and percussionists pounded out a lusty beat. A quarter-century after The Bump, teenagers are still getting off to a dance with a new name-except now they're mugging for camcorders, hoping to get on MTV. Aside from the moves, media, and pyromania, how much has changed over the years in our desire to move around and touch each other?

Fad Dances Ahoy
Pick a letter of the alphabet and you can probably think of three dances that start with that letter. Okay, quick... "S." Salsa, Swing, Stroll. And there you have it.

The arrival of Rock 'N' Roll a half-century ago brought vital changes to social dancing. Though moving with a partner has been the historical norm, Rock ushered in major variations-quicker tempo, more frenetic motion and fewer formal steps. Non-contact dancing became popular, and dance crazes emerged with breakneck speed.

Just take the word "The" and tack on the name of any animal and you've got a dance: Fox, Pony, Bird, Monkey, Fish, Bug, Duck, Clam, Fly, Penguin. Or any unusual word or phrase will do: Frug, Jitterbug, Mashed Potato, Jerk, Wah-Watusi, Slop. How about an action verb? Stroll, Hop, Shimmy, Swim, Surf, Walk, March, Climb, Hike. Several dances, like Chubby Checker's Twist, were behemoths, progressing to the point of national competitions. Every Twist album came with instructions: "Stub out a cigarette with both feet whilst drying your back with a towel." From 1963 to 1966, a TV show called "Ready Steady Go" regularly broadcasted a "New Moves" segment, attempting to mainstream the latest craze. Some of the dances seemed plainly ridiculous, but conformity yields much. Teens did it anyway; after all, they were on camera.

During my adolescence, I attempted The Hustle and Electric Slide. Dance crazes dwindled after the Disco era-I don't remember much besides that doofy novelty hit, The Macarena, which could be executed by anyone with no brain, no rhythm, and even no legs. Since that throwaway song and dance has become a one night stand, what's next?

Like Moths to a Flame
Enter: The Torch, brainchild of Woodstock dentist Alan Pizer, aka Rolan-singly nomenclatured like Madonna. It's the newest dance to shuffle on down the pike (unless someone else invents one between my deadline and publication). Torch is just emerging from its womb. Having been executed only a few times by a handful of teenagers in Rolan's palatial back yard, Torch is, he says, "a formless non-identity, a premature baby fed on a formula of youth energy as it grows and builds a Torch community-hundreds, thousands, then millions of dancers." Rolan believes the ultimate destiny of Torch is more than movement: Torch will be the name and identity of current youth culture.

(Inner Skeptic: "Did Chubby Checker have such lofty dreams as teens air-towel drying their backsides?")

"People will say, 'How can a dance name a generation?'" says Rolan. "That same cynicism would've been present had someone said a weekend musical concert [Woodstock] or a fusion of music video and television would name generations. Torch is a revolution. But I don't have to make a case. The Torch Generation is about to be born and they'll make the case for me."

Fifteen years ago, Rolan dreamed of an infinite line of dancers holding blazing torches, locked pelvis to pelvis, undulating, sweaty, faces ecstatic, screaming, lost in time. As each dancer moved, an electric current ran through the line and the others responded; the collective took on the identity of one. "I awoke knowing this dream came from universal intelligence," explains Rolan. "It's my mission to bring it to the youth of the world." A recent near-death experience prompted Rolan to act quickly: he formed Torch Film Company the next day. His documentary, Torch, Birth of a Dance, was begging to be shot. And pronto.

Recently thirty-or-so teens assembled at Rolan's home wearing hip huggers and halter tops; girls outnumbered boys five to one. Torch 2002 was originally planned for the following night, but threat of rain significantly chopped up the dance card (300-400 were expected), and Rolan hustled what light and sound crew, security, media and musicians he could on short notice. Nonetheless, the energy was present and the shoot took place.

Rolan lit numerous torches around the pool side-site of the warmup-as a mega sound system blasted prerecorded sexually explicit Hip-hop. Half-naked dancers lined up their tattoos. "Let's make it very tight! No spaces!" commanded the emcee. Grinding and filming began. Uninhibited dancers seized ass, the more reticent ones allowed forbidden spaces. Few made eye contact.

"Switch partners! Make it tight!"

A videographer zoomed in on me and suggested I shake it. (Please.) He moved on to capture closeups of teen butts and boobs.
"Switch it up! Keep it tight!"

The dancers were having fun. (Not surprising, since sex, even simulated sex, is fun.) After a few songs, the warmup was complete, but the music continued. The Torchline broke up into pairs.
(Inner Skeptic: "Isn't that natural?")

The party moved to the fire pit. Tad Wise led Afro-Brazilian percussionists Fakoli in a tribal energy drainer. The teenage lap dance resumed around the blaze. "This is a ceremony to pass the torch onto the new generation!" announced Rolan.

(Inner Skeptic: "I'm thinking a lot of people want to get famous tonight.")

Lust On Legs
"This generation desperately needs the 'next big thing,'" says Rolan. "There's been a cultural 'big thing' famine since the introduction of MTV. Historically, a new generation is born when its metaphor is discovered and named. Generation X never had a defining moment and will always remain X. This new generation has an even lower identity profile. They don't know who they are. They haven't encountered a revolution upon which they can hang their collective identity."

(Inner Skeptic: "Should youth hang their identity on groin-lock? Is Torch a license for licentiousness?")

"Try grinding up to an unfamiliar young woman in a club today and security will have you out the door," says Rolan. "Torch reconfigures a need for irreverence, something parents object to, and sexual sublimation free of pregnancy and disease for a generation that's never known the light of sex without the shadow of AIDS. What a gift to a generation!"

Sexual dances will always unhinge the more conservative, however. In 1913, Paris' Comtesse Melanie de Pourtalés remarked about the new Tango, "Is one supposed to dance it standing up?" The Pope immediately denounced it. Suburban schools still crack down on "The Freak" and "The Nasty," quizzing students on proper behavior before admission to dances and prohibiting crotch-to-crotch, prone positions, grinding, and "sandwiching". But Rolan says his sex sandwich targets 17-25 year clubbies. Whew.

"Torch will catch on because a lot of people dance very sexually," says participant Valen Swenson. "No one wants a new "Macarena" or "Electric Slide." Torch is an outlet to move sexually without risk. It's more about the chemistry of the group as a whole."

"Before we danced apart, now we're together," says Rolan. "Not just in closeness, but the number of partners. It's community dancing rather than couples or individuals."

(Inner Skeptic: "Country line dancing is community dancing, but isn't it natural to pick a partner and maybe have a private grope later?")

The Future of Torch
Rolan envisions Hip-hop and Salsa Torch tribes, a tour hosted by College Television Network, Torch Olympics and MTV competitions to determine who'll be in the feature film (script in the works). Two songs are written for a Torch CD: one by Tad Wise and "Lick", by Swenson and Bobby Delicious.

"Torch will be huge," says dancer Ashley Haines. "I'm honored to be one of the originals. I'm truly doing what I love."

"Find something, anything, that makes kids scream with delight, put it in a bottle, give it a name and you've got a product," adds Rolan.
Will Torch ignite? Stay tuned to TorchFilms.com and see.

-Sharon Nichols