5 Dance Moves We Learned At SXSW 2014 In GIFs

By NPR Staff | NPR

Kristal and Jonny Boy

Trash Talk

In which Annie Clark does the robot.

Haters to the left.

Future Islands.

Kristina Hanses (of Swedish performance art duo Kristal and Jonny Boy) getting ready to bust a move.
Adam Kissick for NPR

Remember when you were little and you relied on friends or music videos to learn the latest dance moves? You couldn’t rewind MTV to break down the steps, and you might look a fool for sashaying left instead of right, or whatnot. This is the beauty of the GIF, a motion suspended in looped animation that allows you all the time in the world to get that shimmy down. SXSW was full of crazy dance moves and we had Adam Kissick capture five worth emulating. See a gallery of his beautiful photos here and follow us on Flickr for much, much more.

Future Islands‘ Samuel Herring demonstrates the Buck-Up Bronco.

One of Big Freedia’s dancers gives us a Haters to the Left (or right, depending on your viewpoint).

In which St. Vincent‘s Annie Clark does the Minimalist Marionette.

Lee Spielman’s Dead Weight is not so much a dance move but rather a mosh pit tactic when he’s not terrorizing the Trash Talk crowd.

We don’t really know what Kristina Hanses (of Swedish performance art duo Kristal and Jonny Boy) is doing is here, but let’s call it the Flower Flashdance.