Let’s bring grinding back this year, OK?
Celebrate this ancient teen art the next time you’re at the club
Admit it, we have all sinned on the dance floor at our middle school dances by grinding — the ultimate dance move and our middle school guilty pleasure.
Our teachers tried to prevent it, but there’s no stopping the lethal combination of a 13-year-old’s hormones and Yeah! by Usher. They watched in horror as we would grind on each other — who could have thought their quiet student Lucy could drop it low like that?!
Grinding was a sensation from back in the good ole days (read: 2006) and it has only evolved since then. But our middle school grinding could only be described in one word: iconic.
Gasolina by Daddy Yankee played? Grind.
Low by Flo Rida? You already know we were grinding our way to the center of the dance floor.
The routine was simple: you and your girl gang walked to the dance floor and tried to look like you were in a Cassie music video until you spotted your crush looking over. You waited ’til he drummed up enough courage to dance with you and when he finally did, you happily grind alongside him until the principal turned the lights in the cafeteria back on.
Just like a cheetah who watches his prey from afar, a teenage boy who just reached the early stages of puberty sees his target (you) and the mating ritual begins. This was our peak moment during the dances — everyone knew it was our time to shine and show out for all the cliques to see.
It was the undeniable dance move we did in middle school but even today, some of us are still brave enough to do it in frat basements or in our college town’s favorite bars. But there’s no denying that grinding in our jean skirts and Hollister shirts were the most iconic moments of our adolescence.
Some of us had “grinding circles” while others had the awkward wall grinding that our chaperones disgustedly watched from afar. It’s the memories of our crowded gym floors and sweaty classmates that made our grinding memorable, especially the day after our school dances when we all used to find out who danced with who and NO WAY DID SALLY JUST DO THAT WITH PAUL!
Grinding was the trend we took part of without even questioning because it was the norm of every school dance. As much as people say only boys enjoy grinding, I probably speak for more than few girls when I say that I actually enjoyed grinding as a middle schooler and even now.
Dancing and even grinding with someone we like shouldn’t be seen as “unclassy” or “trashy.” If Temperature by Sean Paul started to play, my 14-year-old self was proudly shaking my booty with my best friends or, if I felt like disappointing my 6th grade teacher, I would grind with a silly boy on the dance floor.
It’s the reminder of the simpler times when our only worry was if we found a duet partner to sing HSM and if he was on key enough to sing Troy’s part of the song. We had the best music back then and the middle school dance floor was nothing but fire all afternoon long.