Dance? It's the new rock 'n' roll

The zeitgeist is a peculiar thing, ever-shifting and redefining our times as we hurtle through the 21st century,

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It's almost impossible to pin down, a commandment-issuing form that offers such wisdom as this: Autumn is the new summer – brown is the new black – breakfast is the new lunch.

So what would the zeitgesit make of dance?

There was a time when dancing involved holding a microphone stand and leaping, pogo-like, to seemingly unreachable heights. Or, alternatively, the rock version would have involved a denim-clad singer placing a foot on the monitor then shaking his head like some Disney lion.

Funny how things change.

Today dance occupies prime time TV slots, there are X Factor style contests to find the nation's finest groovers, celebrities wear sequinned ball gowns as they perfect tangos, foxtrots and waltzes while the nation's greatest dancers become famous in their own right. Those who present dance shows are portrayed as knights in shining armour – in the case of Sir Bruce Forsyth, quite literally.

So, amid the cluster of attractions that will vie for your hard-earned pounds, shilling and pence this week, one of the shows that stands out this week is Burn The Floor, a heart-pounding celebration of dance that will run for five nights at Birmingham's Hippodrome.

The Hippodrome is, of course, one of the region's larger entertainment venues, holding around 2,000 people. Multiply that by five nights and the venue can expect to welcome around 10,000 fans – most paying between £20 and £30 per seat – that's a lot of money to see people wear skinny black trousers and shiny shoes.

In the same week, our region will welcome a number of big hitters: evergreen rocker Alice Cooper, Peter Pan of Pop Cliff Richard, perennial disco divas Erasure, Geoff Boycott heroine Katy Perry and Aussie singer/songwriter Jack Johnson will be the star performers.

Others will line up. Funeral For A Friend, Sixties Gold, Wretch 32, Random Hand and comedians like Milton Jones and Joe Pasquale will bring their shows to the area.

Yet none of them, with the possible exception of Lord Cliff of Richardshire, will attract more fans. Burn The Floor, a show in which nobody is a household name, will be the most watched and probably most enjoyed of the week. Make no mistake, dance is big business.

I put it down to the Ramprakash factor. There was a moment, on the 2006 series of Strictly Come Dancing, when dance penetrated the public consciousness. Eventual winner Mark Ramprakash was dancing with his partner, Karen Hardy, when his microphone became entangled in her dress – thereby spoiling their dance.

A distraught Ramprakash pleaded with Sir Broocie to be given another chance, live on TV. Bruce agreed, Ramps and Hardy swept all before them and within a few weeks they were crowned series winners.

Dance has become an increasingly-popular form of entertainment. It's intrinsically creative and appeals to some base instinct: pretty much all of us can get up and shake our thing. We can let our hair down, cut the ties and express ourselves to an insistent beat – although some better than others, take note, Edwina.

On reflection, it's probably pretty straight forward to work out how the zeitgeist would describe dance in 2011: dance is the new rock 'n' roll.