Electric Slide
The Electric (better known as The Electric Slide) is a four wall line dance set to Marcia Griffiths and Bunny Wailer's song "Electric Boogie".[1]
Choreographer, pianist and Broadway performer Richard L. "Ric" Silver created the dance in 1976 from a demo of the Bunny Wailer recording. There are several variations of the dance. The original choreography has 22 steps,[2] but variants include the Freeze (16-step), Cowboy Motion (24-step), Cowboy Boogie (24 step), and the Electric Slide 2 (18-step). The 18-step variation became popular in 1989 and for ten years was listed by Linedancer Magazine as the number-one dance in the world.
The original dance was choreographed to be danced in two lines facing each other and in the course the opposite dancers circle each other.[3]
Controversy
In 2007, Silver filed DMCA-based take-down notices to YouTube users who posted videos of people performing the 18-step dance variation.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit on behalf of videographer Kyle Machulis against Silver, asking the court to protect Machulis's free speech rights in recording a few steps of the dance in a documentary video posted to the Internet.[4]
On May 22, 2007, the EFF came to an agreement to settle the lawsuit: the settlement states that Silver will license the Electric Slide under a Creative Commons noncommercial license[5] and to also post the new license on any of his current or future websites that mention the Electric Slide.
References
- "Marcia Griffiths – Today's 1 Hit Wonder @ 1 [VIDEO]".
- Silver, Ric. "This is 'The Electric' - The Complete Choreography". The-electricslidedance.com. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
- LineDancer Magazine, June 2003, p. 9.
- "'Electric Slide' Creator Steps on Fair Use | Electronic Frontier Foundation". Eff.org. 2007-03-01. Retrieved 2012-08-29.
- "Electric Slide' Creator Calls Off Online Take-down Campaign". EFF. 2007-05-22. Retrieved 2018-12-07.