velocipedomania: Modern History of the Bike-Dance Team

A History of The Modern Bicycle Dance Team

The first inklings of bicycle dancing can be traced back to the dawning of the invention. The dance of mastering the steel beast, the shuffle of the rough terrain. For the sake of brevity, we will only discuss the modern history from 1996 forward. And for this study, we are omitting the acrobatic vein, "Artistic Cycling" due to the inability for aommon folks to participate in such an event. There is no animosity, just the lack of olympic coaches in the street-style bikedancing.

The first web based appearance of non-acrobatic bike dancing occured in 1996, with The San Francisco Bicycle Ballet. United in an effort for a top-viewed busby-esque patterned performance. They have reunited a few times since then, employing more than a handful of participants, for the full effect of the designs. According to their website, they perform each year in the summer.
In the year 2003, in the green folds of Portland, Oregon's west hills, a sect of female cyclists were hanging out in the woods above the city, on a group ride called Zoobomb. They looked around and realized they were fed up with the male-dominated bike scene. They needed something to bind them together. So they decided to make the Gravity Girls Calendar. They took naughty pictures in the elevators, re-enacted whisky fueled bike crashes, and posed topless with a tied up Santa. This camaraderie brought a new power dynamic to the west hills, and a female kinship was formed. End of winter, planning starts for bike event called Pedalpalooza. Agent Chaos attends a meeting and offers to organize a "bicycle ballet" unaware of the pre-exsisting institution in the bay area. Agent Shine, a school teacher and practitioner of capoeria offers to team up during the meeting, and smiles and giggles are exchanged afterwards. At home, Chaos tells Agent Trouble of the plan and they cackle about a synchronized swimming meets fly girls from "In Living Color" meets 7th grade cheerleader. They know nothing of dance and amass instructional videos on belly dancing and stripping, and sit on the couch to workout videos, stealing moves and slowing them down. They get a posse together the first performance is Multnomah County Bike Fair. They were the half time girls, jumping on the chalky fairway for a hot pink and black number. The fair goers responded with delight and asked when The Sprockettes would be performing again. Well they didn't have any notion of going beyond that one performance, so the thought thrilled them. There were pipe dreams like performing on the bridges and having the five year goal of an International Bike Dance Off. They went on to perform at many street fairs, benefits, house parties, and the mutant bike explosion, The Chvnkathalon. There was a one time performance by the male friends, each choosing a solid color and calling themselves The Different Spokes. Their show was for the North American Cycle Courier Championships (NACCC) weekend and the highlights were synchronized moshing, all levels of bicycle, rear ends spray painted to spell out Different Spokes, and a puker on the dancefloor. They filled big blinging mugs with glitter and shook their dreads to 'Lil John. That was the first and last of them. Some members have gone on to help with a new male dance team in Portland to be discussed later.

In September of 2005 The Sprockettes attended the Margaret Charles Chopper Collective's (or MC3) bike event, Velomutations. The audience's eyes couldn't get bigger, and through some sly trickery, when the interested girls would ask how to be a part of the bike dance team, they told them that these girls of MC3 were putting something together. The sheer enthusiasm helped organize a meeting, and The B.C.Clettes were on their way to forming, choosing red and black as their power colors. They circled around Vancouver and in no time, their male friends found a choreographer and coach and began practicing.In 2006, The Brakes, without knowing of the Different Spokes, chose to adopt a single color for each individual. They rock hip hop moves and make the ladies wild with their bike strip tease.

This exploratory undercurrent reached across the Vancouver bay to Victoria during a pollinating bike event. There a group formed called The Velo Vixens, expanding the burlesque hotness of the BCCLettes into a sideshow with acts and surprises. In November of 2006, The Sprockettes rounded up all of the known cycledancers for The Sprockettes Invitational weekend, kicking it off with an international expose' on the evolution of pedalpirouettes. This event blew the whistle on the possibility of fun between your legs, and over 600 people attended the performances.

By the end of August 2007, a most surprising myspace search concluded that there exsists a dikedanceteam in Machester England, The Spokes, garbed in green and black. They recieved the underground broadcast and began action. They have since performed at the London Bicycle Film Festival and other bike events like critical mass.

2007-2008 was a year of exponential dissemination as branches of modern cycle dancing popped up along the west coast and spotted in the eastern lands. For MiniBikeWinter, Chain Reaction, a long awaited Portland male dance team rocked tricky maneuvers and matching black t-shirts. Also in Bellingham, WA, Agent Vortex moves in and organizes a performance as an addition to a circus. News is heard from Seattle, name unknown but Purple and Black as the colors. Richmond, Ohio has a young lady organize a dance for her college project. March 2008 in Oakland, Agent Chaos and Agent Verve spring into action with new plans for The Derailleurs, bay area bike dance team. Agent Chaos' experience and Agent Verve's degree in dance, they find a flock of fabulous females and spend the next three months choregraphing song with original music by local artists. Agent Chaos finds the challenge enlightening and trying, because of lucky exposure to the rest of bikedance history. It is a fine line to give your hand at a new idea, and then also not copy anyone else in the revolutionary new field of bicycle fun. The Dearilleurs goal is to push the new meme of bikedance and add new facets and shine to the current social gem.

June 28th, exactly five years after the inception, The Sprockettes are hosting A Bike Bash afterparty for the Multnomah Caounty Bike Fair. This will be the international bikedance-off pipe dreamed five years ago and coming into fruition. Teams from Canada, Bellingham, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle will be west-side-storying in a warehouse by the river. Where will the next leg of bicycle fun take it's adventurous riders?

Sprockettes Invitational