Saudi Arabia & Dancing: Sometimes it's serious, sometimes it's funny

Saudi Arabia is not so keen on people dancing, but people in the country are quite enthusiastic about moving their hips more than you'd think. 

This was pretty evident during some of the events taking place during this year's Riyadh Season, a three-month long festival filled with entertainment activities that'll keep individuals busy for the entire period. 

People are sharing the videos on Twitter, and the excitement is like nothing the kingdom has seen before. 

Though these subtle forms of dancing during the festival's events did not lead to any trouble on the part of the individuals, shaking one's hips can come with a risk. 

In recent years, several people in Saudi Arabia have been prosecuted, fined, and jailed for dancing in public. 

In a viral incident that made headlines across the Arab world in 2017, a Saudi singer was arrested after dabbing at a live concert. At the time, Saudi Arabia's National Committee for Combating Drugs warned people against the dance, in which a person drops their head into the bent crook of a slanted arm while raising the opposite arm in a parallel direction out straight. Officials in the country believe dabbing represents the act of sniffing drugs. That same year, Jeddah police arrested a teenager who transformed a local crosswalk in Tahlia street into a dance floor just to do the Macarena. A media spokesperson for the police said the teen was taken to custody for "obstructing traffic" and "violating public principles." Though it was reported the young boy would face a trial, he was later released with a warning.

In 2018, the Kiki challenge - which consists of people jumping out of moving cars and dancing to Canadian rapper Drake's song In My Feelings - took over the Arab world. But it also got one unfortunate woman arrested in Saudi Arabia's Al Khobar region.