Many of the most exciting global dance scenes have sprung out ghettoised environments and marginalised communities, only for them to be co-opted by the mainstream. Take twerking: Miley Cyrus’s behind went viral because of her cheek-jiggling moves but in fact men were the original twerkers and New Orleans Bounce was the movement that spawned it. “It’s project music, it’s call and response,” says the lead dancer from the Game Ova Boys crew, who this short introduction to the bounce world follows, of where it came from and how the dancers vibe off the music and vice versa.
It originally coalesced around dance battles at an ice skating rink as far back as 1991, but bounce became increasingly important in bringing African-Americans together during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Bounce’s sexually explicit lyrics and short, chanted refrains inspire body-popping moves that live up to its name but isn’t as bro-ish as it sounds; since the late-2000s it has morphed into the sub-genre that’s been dubbed ‘sissy bounce’, with LGBTQI+ artists like Big Freedia adopting the sound as a spearhead for sexual liberation.