Now that Top of the Pops (TOTP), one of Britain's oldest music programmes, has entered its middle aged stage, it should be pointed out that there are a few problems with it. Nothing to do with the presenters¹, it has everything to do with the dance steps.

While watching TOTP2², it became clear the over the ages of TOTP, with different dancers every week, they all appear to dance the same steps. These steps are just used in different beats, no matter what the song is: there are quick steps to slow songs and slow steps to quick songs, with freestyle kicks added randomly³ and a few hand claps thrown in when steps are forgotten.

Watch an old TOTP and look at any dancer in the crowd. Now play last week's TOTP and you will see the same dance and, in some cases, the same clothes.

There are many question raised by this:

1. Why are the same steps passed down from generation to generation?

2. Why do people want to do the same dance when being viewed by over several million viewers?

3. Why the black looks at the camera as it passes by?

4. And why has that dance never become popular in night-clubs around the land? You never see it outside TOTP. Which is quite a relief, really.

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