Dads Rule the Dancefloor

In June 2013 the unique, alcohol-fuelled shuffling, which has caused millions of children at weddings everywhere to go a fetching shade of magenta, was finally recognised as the phrase dad-dancing was added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Defined as ‘an awkward, unfashionable, or unrestrained style of dancing to pop music, as characteristically performed by middle-aged or older men’. It is an affliction even royalty hasn’t been spared, as King Carl Gustaf of Sweden's cracking moves at the wedding of Prince Carl Philip and Sofia Hellqvist demonstrated. But is Dad Dancing becoming cool? The recent rise in the popularity of adult dance classes as a fun way of exercising, means that men as well as women are dusting off their dance shoes and rediscovering rhythm at a later stage in life. The real challenge to the perception that middle age men don’t have the moves however, lumbered on to the stage at Britain’s Got Talent this year in an array of classic dad sweaters. Old Men Grooving then went on to shatter the stereotype that dads can’t dance. Their tongue-in-cheek performance wowed both the judges and the audience of Britain’s Got Talent earning them a place in the final where they lost out to Jules O’Dwyer and Matisse; coming fourth overall. Praised by David Walliams for ‘making dad dancing cool’, they even managed to transform Simon Cowell’s look of scepticism, securing a standing ovation during their live audition. The impact these brave dads made was epitomised by one member of the audience who remarked as they walked on to the stage, playing up the image of the bumbling middle-aged man, ‘imagine being their kids’. He quickly ate his words however, dubbing the performance as ‘classic Britain’s Got Talent’. The majority of the groovers have a background in dance; choreographer David Welch (40) was a student of Strictly Come Dancing judge Len Goodman, while Fred Folkes (43) owns a street dancing school and Patrick Alan (49) was a backing dancer for Michael Jackson in 1989. The main premise behind their group is to demonstrate that you should never stop dancing or enjoying a dance, and they have succeeded- just check out their Twitter feed it is full of pictures and videos of people of all ages proving that they too still have the moves. Old Men Grooving are currently touring and will be on the BBC this Sunday to help celebrate Father’s Day. While there are those who are still trying to rock what American TV presenter Jimmy Fallon described in his homage to Dad Dancing as ‘Passionate Elliptical’, Old Men Grooving have proved that daddy can be cool. So maybe this Sunday you should exchange the traditional plaid slippers for a pair of dance shoes and who knows those excruciating wedding discos could soon become a thing of the past!