Anatomy of the slam dance
By Cassie Hood
hoodc@mscd.edu

Photo illustration by Jennylee LeBlanc • jkerriga@mscd.edu

   Sweaty bodies crash into each other while fists violently fly through the air. Elbows
recklessly swing, feet flail through the air and drops of perspiration fling about as everyone takes a breath and throws themselves haphazardly into the heap of adrenaline- filled bodies.

   Welcome to the mosh pit, a place where heavy hits and carnage are the way of life. Weakness isn’t tolerated, and ducking is a great skill to master.

   At first glance, a mosh pit looks like an angry mob with people pushing and shoving
each other. It appears that order doesn’t exist, and in some cases that’s true. In other cases, the pit is a work of art, with movement in sync with the music and bodies shifting perfectly to the beat. It isn’t that the dancers of the pit plan out their moves, the intuition within the group tells them when to move

   In an informal poll done at a heavy metal show, numerous people claimed the reason
they jump into the pit is because it’s fun. They find it humorous to ram into friends and push people around. It appears pits are entertaining because most moshers smile as they fly into each other. Perhaps, though, their smiles come from adrenaline more than having fun. When the adrenaline starts flowing, they feel exhilarated and happy.

    John Wiener, 25, said he goes into the pit so he can hit people.
   “There are a lot of chumps, and then I can go into the pit and do some damage to those chumps,” he said. “It makes me feel happy, for sure.

   He enthusiastically explained how at one show he was stomped on and his tank top was torn off.

   “I had footprints on my face and chest, spilt my eyebrow open and woke up backstage,”
he said. “I just went right back into the pit.”

   In the mayhem of the pit, people occasionally get so caught up in the music and excitement they don’t realize someone has fallen. But most of the time when a person falls, someone will be there to help them up “I was at a show and I was throwing myself around, thrashing about. I was trying to get out of the pit and someone knocked me down. Four guys standing about five feet away from me ran over and picked me up and made sure I was okay,” Danelle Tolen recalls.

   At only 5 feet, 2 inches tall, she can get lost in the pit, where she loves to be at concerts.

   Tolen proves, along with many other girls, that moshing isn’t just for burly frat guys; women can rule the pit, too.

   For some people, however, the pit can be a nuisance where bodies are constantly banging and pushing them against the stage. They don’t understand why anyone would want to enter the pit, why they would subject themselves to such abuse. Mosh pit haters
just go to hear the music, they don’t want to be beat up, too.

   Michelle Morris, 22, was outraged when she and a friend went to a Linkin Park concert
last year.

   “We paid good money for front tickets,” Morris said. “We got there early so we could get a front row spot. And these bastards were able to rush up at the last minute and ruin everything. Fuck mosh pits.”

   Both Morris and her friend were pushed around for the entire show. They stood in the pit through five bands’ performances and then didn’t even have energy to be enthused about Linkin Park, Morris said. Halfway through the headlining performance, both of them had to be pulled out of the pit by security guards.

   Despite the euphoric feeling slam dancing can produce, the pit can prove to be a dangerous place. People come out of pits with bruises, cuts and broken bones. Sometimes
people die from being trampled or being crushed against the stage, though that is mostly at large concerts and music festivals where there are hundreds in the pit. In 2002, Crowd Management Strategies reported 21 deaths and 4,567 injuries resulting from mosh pit incidents.

   Franco Valentino, 23, broke his rib while in the pit seeing The Queers. He said he doesn’t really go into pits unless he is seeing a “dying classic band.” At this particular show, a friend fell into the mass of people and Valentino attempted to help her up. A wave of people hit him at once and the end result was a broken rib. Now he refrains from entering the pit.
Pits, as scary as they may be, are an experience worth having. People look out for each other and there is an understanding of how to act and what not to do. Everyone
just knows. All of the people are there to dance and have a good time; there isn’t malice or destructiveness meant by moshing.

   The pit is a place to get frustrations out and become involved in the social collective-
consciousness.

   Even after Valentino broke his rib he still says, “The appeal is the unified mass-consciousness experienced upon entering said pit.”