Hardcore dancing
and Mosh
Hardcore dancing grew out of the eastern United States hardcore scene, especially the New Jersey, New York, Boston, and Florida hardcore scenes. A hardcore pit differs from the usual mosh pit routine of pogoing and crashing into each other in an often controlled, but violent way. Participants in hardcore pits move around with rhythm to various beats, some slow and some faster. Hardcore dancing is typically associated and executed only during certain points in musical breakdowns; this element makes it such that hardcore dancing exhibits less motility than a conventional mosh pit.
This style of dancing was common in the late 1990s. As some hardcore bands incorporated slower syncopated, metal-influenced rhythms into their songs, the modern breakdown — and the dancing that went with it — was introduced.[citation needed] Early Earth Crisis and Biohazard concerts were common venues for this type of hardcore dancing.
New York hardcore band Sick of it All featured a tongue-in-cheek how-to guide for hardcore dancing in their music video for "Step Down" and AFI's video for "The Leaving Song Pt. II" is a depiction of hardcore and Straight Edge culture, popular for its relentless representation of Hardcore Dancing. A Day to Remember also did a video showing a how to guide for dance moves in the pit, Ron Jeremy was the fictional martial arts instructor showing the moves. Hatebreed's video for 'I Will Be Heard' also depicts hardcore dancing throughout.
2-Step
The 2-step is the dance move performed by hardcore dancers to a steady snare beat. It involves swinging or "stepping" your legs around each other in time to the snare drum. 2-Steps vary from scene to scene. while the idea remains the same, some variations include floorpunching, windmilling or kicking backwards.
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2 Step
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2 Step
Most hardcore dancers strive to produce their own unique 2-Step, often pushing the boundaries of balance. For example, one style is to punch your arms around your body in time with the swinging of each leg. Another is to bend down to either side and touch the floor While they dance, pushing the boundaries of the dancers' balance. Various dancers mix 2-Step styles and use various types of foot motion. Most dancers generally cross their legs in a subsequent pattern or keep their legs in a identical position and do a shifting 2-step motion with their feet. Generally this dance is the main skill a hardcore dancer strives to develop, as it is the most used form of dancing for many of this scene.
Windmill
The windmill is a dance move performed quickly swinging your arms in circles resembling the moving of a windmill. Often dancers alternate arms, keeping one at their side while swinging the other and then switching after each rotation. Variations include swinging with fists together, swinging backwards, and swinging with only one arm.
Many variations of this include imitating loss of balance and beating of chest. Also horizontal swinging of arms is very common to find during this move.
In some regions, dancers of this dance are often referred to derogatorily as " Windmillers." And are often looked down on and called "posers," by members of the metal/hardcore community.
Penny picking/Picking up Change/Floorpunching
The Floorpunch is when the hardcore dancer throws his/her fists towards the floor, not intending to make contact with it. Alternative feet are sometimes stomped to the music as arms are raised, i.e. left arm raised right leg stomped. This is dangerous to people behind the dancer if the elbows are thrown hard enough.
There are many different variations of this technique again. It is a hardcore dancer's need to be unique that pushes them to push the boundary. For example, one technique is to keep both legs straight and together, double over, stretch out both arms and jump from side to side on both legs, in the imitation of a bird or an airplane.
Hate Moshing/Crowd Killing
Hate Moshing is when a dancer involves on-lookers in their moves. The most common of these is known as a "Lawnmower", which involves rushing into both sides of a Mosh Pit whilst windmilling or pulling your arms up from the ground. This is often used to create space before a Breakdown but sometimes is used before/after the song is played (a common way of opening up a pit is a less violent push-back, simply involving a dancer or dancers having their back to the crowd and pushing them back). Other Crowd Killing moves involve simply lunging into bystanders, throwing kicks backwards with the intention of making contact, etc. Though in some scenes this is far more violent and there are repeated roundhouse kicks and spinning elbows as well as randomly swung fists going into the crowd.