Progressive metal and dancing appear as odd fellows, as how does one mosh on tracks in 11/8, featuring multiple lengthy solos? Between the more limited discussion of its dance practices to date and their conflicting audience reception on websites such as Reddit, an intriguing phenomenon emerges raising important questions: what dance practices may be observed in relation to the genre? And what factors influence the ambivalence expressed by pockets of the genre’s community? This article opens a genre theory-based inquiry into audience-enacted dance practices in progressive metal and suggests aspects contributing to the ambivalent community responses towards them. A sample of live recordings is examined to reconstruct and interpret both observed dance practices and musical and performative factors influencing their emergence. The discussion also frames static audience members in live settings as a parallel mode of dance practice engagement with equal relevance to the genre’s dance aesthetic.
Aleksandar Golovin (Sun,) studied this question.