‘I’m a fan’: Frances Whiting on why she loves Raygun

Aussie Olympian Raygun may have caused a stir in Paris but the truth is many got a crucial detail all wrong.

By the time you read this the Olympics will be well and truly over, but not the memories of our most successful Games ever – or the nation’s B-girl Rachael Gunn.

Say what you want about her – and plenty of people have had plenty to say – but I’m a fan.

This is mostly because in a world where females are meant to slowly vanish as they grow older, any woman of 36 who calls herself Raygun is all right by me.

I personally am thinking of changing my name to Lightnin’ Whiting.

Anyway, watching some of Raygun’s dance moves made me think of how we all knew some of them off by heart.

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And how, if you grow up in Australia, it is highly likely you have performed at least one of the following dance moves at some time in your life.

These are as follows, with descriptions. Let me know if you agree.

And feel free to send in any of your own best moves.

B-Girl Raygun of Team Australia competes in Paris. Picture: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

●The Shuffle: You do not want to be here, your girlfriend has dragged you on to the dance floor and now all you can do is stare at your feet, rock your body from side to side and wait for Girls Just Want to Have Fun to be over.

●The Nutbush: You and your friends learnt this dance in high school, and
by God you’re going to do it now. You
are also going to make other people do it by forcibly teaching them and screaming, “It’s easy!”

●The Sprinkler/Robot/Worm: The best time of your life was at uni hitting the dance floor at the B&S Ball with your mates from rowing, until Deano threw up in the bin and the cab driver refused to take you all home. Classic.

Frances Whiting. Picture: David Kelly

●The Middle-Aged Man Dance: Doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, or who you are with, if you are a man between the ages of 40 and 60, and The Killers’ Mr Brightside comes on, you are on, Sir.

●The Dance Around Your Handbags Together: It’s Stacey’s hen’s night, you’re all wearing pink sashes and Shania Twain’s Man! I Feel like a Woman! has just come on.

●The Conga: Your name is Margaret, you are a friend of the mother of the bride, you are of indeterminate age, you have great pins and you are not afraid to show them.

●The Bringing Sexy Back: You’ve just met, and you are very, very drunk. Either that, or you have been together for less than five years, and have not had children yet.

●The Trousers Around Your Ankles: You are an Australian man of any age at a wedding reception and Eagle Rock has just come on. Your wife of 40 years is not happy with you.

●The Tango/Cha Cha/Viennese waltz:You and your partner go to ballroom dancing every Thursday night at the Ashley De Soza Academe of Dance, and this is your moment.

●The Daryl Braithwaite Horses All In: Stand in a circle with your arms around each other’s shoulders. Sway in various directions. Shout about riding horses way up in the sky. You don’t know what this means, neither does anyone else. Doesn’t matter. At least one man will cry.

Originally published as ‘I’m a fan’: Frances Whiting on why she loves Raygun