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Media freaks out over 'freak dancing'

by Bill D'Agostino and Jay Thorwaldson

An impending ban on "freak dancing" at Palo Alto High School student dances -- starting tonight -- has erupted into a media frenzy of interest.

"It's taken on an incredible life of its own," Paly Principal Sandra Pearson said shortly before a 1 p.m. press conference Thursday afternoon, to which television trucks arrived nearly two hours early.

Earlier this month, Pearson announced she was planning to ban "freak dancing," a form of close-contact dancing that simulates sexual acts and has become a fad at high schools around the state and beyond.

But the ban at Paly somehow exploded into a media circus Thursday morning following media reports of the new rule.

"Carolyn, my secretary, has fielded six or eight press calls just this morning," Pearson said shortly before going into a student town hall meeting to discuss the impending ban.

Calls came from the Los Angeles Times, NBC and CBS news stations, and "a Christian radio station that is excited because we have taken a stand upholding morals," Pearson said.

The burst of media interest came as a surprise: "I felt we were going along fine, working with the students. We had planned to remind students of the dance and the ban through the broadcast-journalism class" Thursday morning, along with the town-hall student meeting in case students had questions or comments.

But Pearson decided to schedule a full-blown press conference after television trucks showed up in the Town & Country Village Shopping Center parking lot between 11 a.m. and noon.

"I've never done a press conference in my 12 years of being an administrator," Pearson told some of the reporters as they arrived.

Six cameras from a variety of local stations, two radio microphones and numerous reporters huddled around Pearson, who said she would try to speak in 30-second sound-bites as much as she could.

Handing out a month-old school newsletter that announced the change, Pearson said: "I'm a little shocked by this response because it's old news."

Tony Russomanno, a KPIX reporter covering the press conference, said the story was a way for him "to dip a toe into pop culture for a day."

Bob MacKenzie, a KTVU Channel 2 reporter, agreed that the story provided a window into teen life, then added: "It's got a sex element and you can not go wrong with a sex element."

As the press conference continued, a flock of gawking students surrounded the television cameras, watching from a distance. Some found the proceedings amusing.

"People have sex," senior Stephanie Morena said, laughing. "Get over it!"

"I think it's gotten too much attention," senior Eunice Chen chimed in. "It (freaking) has been going on for a while and we'd had rules against it since we were in middle school."

Another reporter asked Pearson if she felt like a "fuddy-duddy" for imposing the new rule.

"If you look back, the waltz was also controversial. The twist, in my day, was definitely controversial. The difference is that this is so sexually explicit that it becomes inappropriate," Pearson responded. "It's one thing for Elvis to have twisted his hip or for us to have twisted our hips in a twist. But in this instance, boys and girls are very close together and in very demeaning positions. You can't miss that this is a re-enactment of the sexual act That, for a public high school, is inappropriate."

Paly is far from the first school in the nation to ban "freaking." JLS and Terman middle schools also ban such dancing.

At Paly, there have been two dances this year since the ban was discussed.

"I was pleasantly surprised at how little dancing was inappropriate," Pearson said. In a couple of instances when dancers were approached, they responded positively, she added.

"We are trying to change the tone of the dances so all students feel comfortable gong to the dance," Pearson said. Younger students particularly had voiced concerns about attending dances because of a perception of alcohol and drug use and "freak dancing," Pearson said in a recent interview with the Weekly.

A group of parents became very concerned and wanted to change the structure of school dances dramatically, but Pearson opted for a series of meetings with students instead.

It was the students who suggested there was no precise definition of "freak dancing," resulting in the language being against "sexually explicit dancing," Pearson said.

E-mail Bill D'Agostino at billd@paweekly.com