“Since technology isn’t new, why this infatuation with imitating machines now?”
i’m not sure what you mean by “now”, but one could be forgiven for thinking you’re suggesting there hasn’t been any robotic-type dancing before this current wave, aside from mass communist performances.
One particular style of Robot Dancing was, according to Wikipedia, started in 1967 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_(dance) and I remember it being popular in my English school playground in the early 1980s.
Going forty years further back there’s something very robotic about the Triadic Ballet of 1927, from the Bauhaus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMDtwC76HjA (I believe that’s a performance of it from 1970.)
Commenting is turned off on this blog.