ABSTRACT
Moshing forms an outwardly aggressive dance where participants frenetically bump, crash, and collide inside a designated area known as the mosh pit. Moshing combines each dancer’s energy into a frenetic whirlwind of movement that creates sensations of ecstasy and relieves tensions within a communal space. Many dancers in the film’s concert scene did the pogo, an early punk dance where dancers jump up and down, similar to riding a pogo-stick. The unison caused the dancers’ individuality to merge into a collective unit comprising separate and diverse yet unified motions that created order within chaos and strengthened collective identity within a subculture that highly prizes individuality. Anarchic moshing allowed for collective expression of disillusionment with the previous generation’s failings and right-wing Reagan conservatism. Regardless of the individual dancers’ motivations for entering the pit and their particular dance moves while moshing, they could express their frustrations or joys in a chaotic yet orderly mass of anarchy.
