NO FREAK DANCING OR THE MUSIC STOPS, TEENS WARNED PACTS REQUIRE KIDS TO KEEP HANDS WHERE THEY BELONG.

Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - It's not quite ``Footloose,'' but there's danger in that dirty dancing. Some call it freak dancing. Others call it free expression. And it's prompted many school officials to put on the brakes before the problem gets out of hand.

In Santa Clarita, ``freak'' dancing - likened to having sex with your clothes on - has been banned at high schools where students and their parents must sign contracts acknowledging the teens will keep their hands and the rest where they belong.

In this season of winter formal dances in the high school gym, school officials all over are bracing for the racy dancing, where students' bodies grind into one another to the DJ's beat. To rein in the romance, schools are using more chaperons, a lot of flashlights and the off switch on the music.

``The dances were out of control,'' Jan Hayes-Rennels, student body adviser at Canyon High School in Santa Clarita, said of the trend toward dirtier dancing.

``We told the students they could dance exactly the way they danced before, just don't touch each other. And we ask them to just face each other; there's no reason other than sexual intent for a guy to be dancing facing a girl's backside.''

To school officials and most parents, it's a no-brainer, but to teens on the edge of adulthood, suggestive dancing is this generation's ``Elvis the Pelvis.''

``Dancing changes,'' said Joan Lewis, assistant principal of Granada Hills High School. ``I remember when people thought some of our dances and music were awful. This happens with each generation. We just make sure we have plenty of chaperons at the dances so our students can make wise choices.''

The Los Angeles Unified School District has no sweeping rule against suggestive dance, leaving individual schools to enforce their own rules.

But in the William S. Hart Union High School District in Santa Clarita, parents of teens attending this month's winter formals were required to sign permission slips that reinforced the district's directives.

``Any students or guests who engage in dangerous, lewd or other inappropriate behavior on the dance floor, including freak dancing and any other dancing that may be interpreted as being sexually suggestive, will be removed from the dance and sent home,'' read the letters.

At Canyon High, the new rules were met with mixed reactions.

``It was a frustrating experience for some students because they realized for the first time that they didn't know how else to dance,'' Hayes-Rennels said of Canyon's Jan. 15 dance. ``But the good news was that a lot of the students who aren't as loud or popular had a lot of fun. They enjoyed not having the sexual tension and pressure going on around them.''

Students had a different opinion of the dance, fed by an active high school grapevine.

``All the teachers were saying that Canyon's dance was great; that's because everybody left early,'' said JoJo Robinson, a senior at Valencia High.

On Thursday and Friday, boys gathered at Newhall tuxedo shop to pick up formal wear for dances tonight at Valencia and Hart high schools.

``Everybody's always gotten close in the past,'' said Amanda Perek, a junior at Hart High. ``People are bummed about it. Dancing is the way people show themselves off.''

``The majority of kids are just there to have fun,'' said Brandon Bullough, a Valencia senior. ``These rules are ridiculous.''

Greg Franklin, assistant superintendent for the Glendale Unified School District, said he had more problems when he worked for Fullerton schools.

``The kids would get a warning first,'' he said. ``At some schools, they would turn up the lights or turn off the music and make announcements. The fun would get interrupted. We think the best thing is to communicate our expectations beforehand.''

``If you make a good example the first time, you eliminate the problems down the road,'' said Jason Peplinski, director of student activities at Royal High School in Simi Valley.

He said if inappropriate dance moves are spotted by chaperons, DJs are instructed to kill the music.

``They'd rather dance the appropriate way than not dance at all,'' he said. ``Having the student body select the music ahead of time helps, too. And we only play radio mixes of the songs or those with alternative lyrics in place of suggestive or inappropriate ones.''

Jeff Globerman of Santa Clarita, who has been in the tuxedo rental business for more than three decades, has seen trends go from good to bad and back again. His clients express their frustrations safely out of parental earshot.

``How do you slow dance if you can't touch the girl? And just who is defining decent behavior?'' he said.

``Being teenagers always means some of them are going to push the limits and someone else will always try and impose their standards,'' he said. ``This is going to be happening forever.''

Carol Rock, [phone]

carol.rock(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Travis McKelvey, 16, tries on his tuxedo Friday in preparation for this weekend's winter dance. Store employee Jan Munroe assists. Students were required to sign a ``no freak dancing'' pledge in order to attend.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer