But the couples dancing at high school proms around New York and the rest of the country as the school year ends would be unrecognizable to aficionados of disco and swing.
Most of the dancing is not of the cheek-to-cheek variety, a fact that has caused controversy in some quarters. Though the dancing varies in intensity, the partnering position of choice, back to front, is at once less intimate and more sexual, and the couplings, even at a formal event like the prom, constantly shift.
Called grinding, freaking or ''backing it up'' in its most brazen form, this kind of dancing is not flirtation. It is war.
''It's like a battle between you and the guy,'' said Candy Javier, 18, a senior at Monroe Academy for Visual Arts and Design, one of five South Bronx high schools that had a joint prom earlier this month at the V.I.P. Country Club in New Rochelle, N.Y. ''They're pushing forward, and you're pushing back.'' She shrugged. ''You're not doing it,'' she added. ''You're just dancing.''
How does a girl know if she's won the battle?
''The guy gets anxious and takes a break,'' Candy said with a slow smile.
Its detractors say such dancing is nothing less than simulated sex. In the last few years, schools across the country have started to use a variety of tools -- including instructional videos, flashlights, ''time out'' corners and contracts that stipulate acceptable conduct -- to cool off the dance floor.
