In our Dancing vs. The State series, THUMP explores nightlife's complicated relationship to law enforcement, past and present.Imagine, if you will, going through the trouble of organizing a town-wide dance. You've got the decorations, you've hired the DJ, you've sent out the invites, and, most importantly, you've secured your venue—a space right on Broadway, across the street from the local church. Now imagine, just days before the shindig, you were forced to cancel the event on account of an arcane law outlawing dancing within 500 feet of a house of worship.
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No, this isn't just 1984's camp-tastic musical-drama, Footloose, in which Chicagoan transplant Ren (Kevin Bacon) fights the draconian anti-dancing laws of fictional flyover town Bomont—though the parallels between the two scenarios are striking. This is a real-life situation that the residents of Henryetta, Oklahoma were confronted with, when they were pressured to call off a Valentine's Day dance this February. Yes, February 2017.It seems, in the last few months we've all been kicked into a bizarro version of America where, somehow, Footloose, that decades-old hunk of cinematic gouda, has become startlingly prescient—a phrase pop culture writers have been using with reckless abandon of late in reference to anything tangentially dystopian (Did you hear? Trump's just like Voldemort!). But again, I'm not just talking nebulous, big-picture prognostication—though any number of the Trump Administration's unconscionable governmental orders could serve as an analogue to Footloose's cartoonishly oppressive dancing ban. No, this is somehow still a very literal problem in Henryetta.So now that life's imitating pop culture detritus, it makes perfect sense to take stock of Footloose, and see what lessons we can learn from it in the face of oppressive government regulations and political divide. After all, when Ren battles the conservative forces that be for his right to dance, he makes real progress. One superfluous montage at a time, the high schooler changes hearts and minds, setting the stage for legislative reform and a killer dance party—and couldn't we use a little of both right now?
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1. Learn the culture of your ideological opponents.
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"Tractor fighting" is the logical extension of "punching" in the Footloose universe. In a totally real scene (with a tenuous grasp on reality), Ren participates in a holy-shit-that's-dangerous game of chicken with industrial tractors to prove his mettle to Chuck, leaving one tractor wrecked and Chuck in a ravine. I don't have much to add on this subject, though I'll say not destroying thousands of dollars of agricultural equipment for kicks might help alleviate some of the economic stress rural America's currently facing.Ren also surrounds himself with friends who similarly believe the town's boogie ban is bull. These include the rebellious preacher's daughter Ariel Moore, and open-minded dimwit Willard. The more Ren ingratiates himself in Bomont's culture (and humiliates Chuck), the larger the ranks of his pro-dance movement swells.As with many government opposition movements, a lot of work and defiance happens in the shadows. Ren covertly teaches rhythmically challenged Willard how to dance (in montage form!), and his core crew makes a pilgrimage beyond state lines to a club. Repurposed spaces become crucial. In the movie's most memorably corny scene (a montage again, naturally), Ren busts a move at an abandoned factory, flipping and contorting midair on some proto-Cirque du Soleil shit. And, after briefly considering the mill, the teens eventually hold a dance in a location just outside of the jurisdiction of the police—a warehouse that, honestly, looks way nicer than most of the underground clubs I've been to in New York.
2. Organize, go underground, and defy the laws.
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3. Understand the importance of religion.
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