The Electric Slide was originally a line dance that evolved to the song of the same name by Marcia Griffiths in 1989 - which was, in turn, was loosely based on the country line dance, the Electric Boogie,references to which can be heard in the lyrics. The dance is a "four wall" line dance (the participants end up facing each of the four cardinal points) that has only six patterns over 14 beats: 1-3 Grapevine to the right 4-6 Grapevine left 7-9 Shuffle back 10-11 Rock forward & back 12-13 repeat 14 1/4 turn left

Variations involving turns in any of the three step sequences are common, as are claps during beats 10-13.

The dance is still done frequently at social ocassions to virtually any music.