Pogo (dance)
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The pogo is a dance where the dancers jump up and down, while remaining in the same location; the dance takes its name from its resemblance to the use of a pogo stick, especially in a common version of the dance, where an individual keeps their torso stiff, their arms rigid, and their legs close together. Although just as often, pogo dancers will flail their arms around wildly while thrashing their bodies about.
While similar to the religious dances of the Pentecostal faith and various African tribes, pogo dancing is perhaps most associated with punk rock, as both performers and audience members at punk rock performances often pogo; a pogo mob is a group of pogo dancers at a punk concert (see also punk dance).
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[edit] Style
The basic steps allows for a variety of interpretations, including some which appear quite violent. Pogo dancers have their choice of:
- keeping their torsos rigid or thrashing them about;
- holding their arms stiffly at their sides or flailing them;
- keeping their legs together or kicking about;
- jumping straight up and down, jumping in any direction, or spinning in the air.
Occasionally, dancers collide, but this is not necessarily part of pogo dancing. An uninformed bystander might get the impression that the dancers are attacking one another. People sometimes get injured when pogoing, but, more often than not, pogoers who fall to the ground are helped up instead of getting trampled. There is a general understanding that the pogo is fun, not a fight. There are more violent versions of the pogo, for example the "pig pogo", where people kick and lay about. The risk of injury in this variant is a little higher, although it is still taboo to hurt others on purpose. As with any vigorous activity performed in close quarters, the body heat, as well as the pressure created on the soles of the feet, shins, and knees by the pogo dance requires great stamina or at least much enthusiasm by anyone "pogoing" for a whole song or an extended amount of time. Some pogo aficionados pride themselves in "pogoing" for the duration of the whole set of songs.
[edit] History
In The Filth and the Fury, Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious claims that he invented the pogo sometime around 1976. At punk shows in the early days of London's punk scene, Vicious often had to stand behind crowds which obscured the bands, so he started jumping up and down to get a better view. Whether Vicious actually invented the dance or not, the pogo quickly became closely associated with punk rock. Jon King of Gang of Four helped popularize the pogo as a stage move for performers.
In the following years, stage diving, crowd surfing, moshing and hardcore dancing all became associated with pogo dancing, though some of these activities predate the pogo.
In May 2007, after mistakenly naming that dance Major League Baseball teams do after a walkoff home run--where "the batter gets mobbed by his teammates and they all jump and down in a happy circle for a few seconds" the "Walkoff Mosh Pit"--ESPN Page 2 writer Bill Simmons re-named the dance the "Walkoff Pogo."
[edit] Songs about Pogo dancing
- English punk band the Vibrators have a song "Pogo Dancing", which touches on the topic of pogo dancing.
- Pelle Miljoona & N.U.S., a Finnish pioneering punk band have a song called "Mä Vaan Pogoon" (Literally translated "I Just Pogo")
- In the System of a Down song "Bounce", the songs lyrics advocates moshing with terms such as " Jump, Bounce, Up, Down", while Pogo is repeated in the background, though the main theme of the song is group-sex.
- In The Minutemen's iconic song, "History Lesson Part II", guitarist D. Boon recalls his early punk days with bandmate Mike Watt, when they would "go drink and pogo".
- Billy Idol's song Dancing with Myself is commonly thought to be about masturbation, but is actually about pogo dancing.[citation needed]
- German techno group Planetakis has released a song called "Pogo in the Shoes of Kylie Minogue".
