Offbeat

Footloose rule sees dance cancelled over proximity to church

Ohio town’s moral code echoes the story line of the 1980s Kevin Bacon film

Footloose starred Kevin Bacon as a teenager Ren who moved from the city to a small town where dancing was banned.

Thu Feb 9 2017 - 16:25

A small town in Oklahoma has cancelled a Valentine’s Day dance because of an arcane city ordinance enforcing a strict moral code, echoing the story line of the 1980s film Footloose.

The organiser ditched the event at Rosie LaVon’s Marketplace in Henryetta, Ohio because it would have taken place 90 metres (300 feet) from a church, in violation of a rule forbidding dancing within 152 metres (500 feet) of a place of worship, KTUL-TV reported.

Footloose starred Kevin Bacon as a teenager Ren who moved from the city to a small town where dancing was banned. His fight against the establishment in the 1984 film was inspired by events that happened in Elmore City, Oklahoma, though the film was shot in Utah.

The Henryetta ordinance dates back to a 1979 ruling, which watered down an earlier ruling that banned all public dancing regardless of location.

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Mayor Jennifer Clason, who was born in the town of 6,500 east of Oklahoma City, said she always knew about the old city ordinance but that it has never been enforced.

“I’d never looked at it because it never came up,” she told KTUL-TV. “It’s an antiquated ordinance, no one has ever looked at it to change it.”

Police chief Steve Norman said his department has no interest in enforcing the rule.

City councillors will consider abolishing the ordinance during their meeting on February 22nd.

AP and The Guardian

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