Watusi, Bachata, Twist, Mosh, Conga, Zumba, Hustle, Cumbia, Shag, Pajaritos, Charleston, Locomotion, Zumba, Trouser Press, Macarena, Mashed Potato, Mambo, Foxtrot: I have a perverse fascination with dance fads that crop up out of nowhere, are insanely popular for a brief period, and then disappear almost completely to occasionally resurface at wedding discos.
So you can imagine my excitement this week when the dynamic duo of Locust and Concheroo unearthed a 1960s Finnish dance craze called the Letkis or Jenka that I’d never heard of. When I posted a clip of it on my FB I was deluged with comments by nostalgic Finns and Swedes. For two or three years it was as hot as IKEA meatballs. Joe Loss and France Gall jumped on the bandwagon and recorded jenka tracks. Stikkan Andersson, later to become highly successful as ABBA’s mentor, even tried to launch it as a new international dance craze.
Billboard Magazine on February 23 1965 reported the fears of the West German government:“German medical authorities have warned that kissing fad started by the let−kiss dance threatens to spread colds and other disease. They call the let−kiss fever a “medical nuisance could lead to a catastrophe”. Let−kiss discs have rocketing sales in Germany. Meanwhile, Bonn government authorities are considering steps to ban the dance.”
There’s a theory that Bunny Hop was brought back to Finland by exchange students who’d been in the US. The Finns then started to play traditional jenka dance songs (it’s a dance rather like the schottis) on modern electric instruments combined with the conga like dance movements. And it spread like wildfire.
One side effect of my jenking research is that I also learnt about the Slosh: dance of choice of inebriated women at (Scottish) weddings and parties.
I suspect that AW is more full of wallflowers than a well-stocked garden centre. But does anyone have memories, either good of bad of these various dance sensations that swept the nations?
Back in Jane Austen’s day, no gentleman would stand a chance with the ladies if he could not cut a rug and perform a stylish gavotte. I suspect that few courting couples meet on the dancefloor in 2016.
The most remarkable jenka memory on FB came from a Swedish pal:
“I was raised with that dance.. the jenka. I especially recall the compulsory collective jenka at the pig party with drunk (free red wine) and enthusiastic Swedes on a charter trip with my mom to the Canary Islands in the early 70’s… I was so young I was on my watch, slightly worried of being raped by the large number of drunk housewifes on the loose… Observed by a big taxi driver, he took me aside and said it wasn’t a place for me to be, took me down to the harbour red light district, where my true education begun… all due to the completely derailed morality of the jenka…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObDV1aWOH9U
Mike_H says
As the ’70s turned into the ’80s, this is what we were doing on every dancefloor in the land.
.
Weird shit.
drakeygirl says
Which reminded me of this…
Milkybarnick says
I did this at a wedding about 10 years ago. One of the most knackering things I’ve done!
Kaisfatdad says
I’m sure that it will be the only “dance” performed sitting down we get.
I remember it vividly. Enormously popular. Where on earth did that routine come from?
(Scurries off to Google)
Kaisfatdad says
The “dance” doesn’t actually have a name but the tune is somethines referred to as the Rowing Song. The idea for the movements is credited to a DJ, Nigel Tolley.
The song was a far bigger hit in Europe for the Gap Band than in the US. Singer Charlie Wilson is Bootsy Collin’s cousin and there’s fair bit of P Funk influence .
mikethep says
How well I remember the Fish Slapping Dance craze that overtook the nation in the brief moment in time between the Mashed Potatoes craze and the Hitchhiker craze. Night after night we would crawl into bed, exhausted and smelling ripely of flounders, desperate for sleep yet thinking only of the moment on the morrow when we would take up our fish and begin again.
Locust says
That “Oops…” rowing dance was murder on the abs if you were as unfit as I was…and you couldn’t get out of the line and stop the torture!
I liked The Bump better, some years earlier.
Unfortunately, too often it looked like this:
Rigid Digit says
More Bumping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAfthQTqj24
Rigid Digit says
and Joe Tex has now completely given up on that particular dance
(especially when it involves a “larger framed” lady)
Kaisfatdad says
Just be careful you don’t mix up slappers and flappers, Mike. It’s easily done. The latter are more fragrant and lack that fishy aroma.
Locust says
My seven years older brother was in a dance troupe at music school and came home and taught me all kinds of strange dances when I was just a kid, among them the Charleston, which I really enjoyed. Still remember a few steps, but you rarely (OK, never) get the chance to show off such skills these days!
Johnny Concheroo says
That’s some excellent research KFB, exactly what makes the Afterword great.
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks Johnny C. You are too kind. It was vey enjoyable to try and join the dots. And I was fascinated how many Scandinavians remembered the jenka with fondness.
Interesting to see how dance styles evolve. The Bunny Hop became the Jenka which became..رقصة البطريق aka raqsat al-batriq aka The Crazy Penguin which is enormous now in Saudi Arabia. No family party is complete without it.
That has got to be the oddest thing I have seen this week.
mikethep says
Actually I do have fond memories of the Madison, which briefly swept the youth clubs of Britain some time in the early 60s. Kind of proto line dancing, very communal and totally unsexy*, although you could manoeuvre yourself close to someone you were interested in if you were subtle about it. There was a trad jazz record that was a favourite to dance to, but I’m buggered if I can remember what it was called. I can whistle it, but that’s not much use for an ATM, is it? Green Onions was another good one.
*unlike this.
Kaisfatdad says
Unlike this! You said it. One of the sexiest dance scenes in any movie.
Youmay find this interesting, Mike.
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/behind-the-scenes-of-an-iconic-godard-scene
Kaisfatdad says
The dance that the fabulous threesome are doing is not actually the Madison. When Mike was dancing at the youth club it would look more like this.
It probably did not look too much like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImAKDEvaZpA
As you can see, The Madison is still enormously popular in Cambodia and is often performed at weddings, parties etc.
What a frightening thought! Maybe there is a country where thousands still do the Birdy Dance……
I am keen to know more about the Slosh. Have we no Scottish Sloshers among us?
Sewer Robot says
My first ever discoteca was on holiday around the time Malcolm McLaren was in the charts with Buffalo Stance. At one stage the dance floor was cleared for two long skipping ropes and two people who knew how to jump them. Then about halfway through the record, all the pissed revellers were invited to have a go with calamitous results. And people moan nowadays about “health and safety”.
Locust says
This one, surely?
Sewer Robot says
Jeeziz. How did that come out like that? How weirdly wired are our brains – Double Dutch, of course..
minibreakfast says
I expect you were thinking of Buffalo Gals. Buffalo Stance, of course, samples it.
minibreakfast says
Rigid Digit says
The Dying Fly
One of the very few dances I am adept at performing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx1wWKgjjYY
Rigid Digit says
(starts at 0:48)
Kaisfatdad says
Talking of flies, did you know that Chubby Checker tried to launch a dance called The Fly as a follow up to the Twist. But it was swallowed up by an old lady. I don’t why she ….
Interesting trivia: Chubby was not actually rotund. His name was a tribute to Fats (chubby) Domino (the name of another game Chequers).
Sewer Robot says
Now I understand how Porky Colditz got his name!
(Top trivia, btw)
Kaisfatdad says
Here’s that slim chap Chubby doing the Fly
Johnny Concheroo says
He may be little more than a footnote in pop history these days, reduced to one hit record and the title of a fatties thread on an obscure online music blog, but Chubby is begging you: “Hey man, don’t knock the Twist!”
http://i.imgur.com/AfEUw6h.jpg
retropath2 says
The only dance I deign….
Fair places a strain on the trunkles, as our other exponent, @tiggerlion recalls
hubert rawlinson says
In the eighties I danced Saturday Night* with my then partner for a party of Americans and a group of Greek waiters when on holiday. There was considerable misunderstanding.
She also introduced me to the joys of sloshing as she was of Caledonian persuasion.
* A morris dance.
minibreakfast says
Oh, I was hoping you meant the Whigfield thing….
Kaisfatdad says
Well we would not you disappointed, Ms Breakfast….
The Whigfield dance for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S-qpHo7H7s
It looks a lot more complicated than some of the routines we’ve had to date. I can’t imagine 10,000 Cambodians cracking this one,
Locust says
Speaking of pipg parties in the Canary Islands, is there a greater abomination than the clucking Bird Dance? Still a favourite among children and drunks everywhere (costumes optional):
Locust says
What’s the point of an edit function when your eyes don’t have a proofreading function…
Pig party, FFS!
Sewer Robot says
Aye. Direct proofreading to the brain, get on it admins!
Kaisfatdad says
Well Locust, we couldn’t avoid Los Parjoritos. 140 versions in 42 countries and 40 millon records sold. There must a special corner of Hell where that song is on endless repeat.
It was written in Switzerland in 1957 by an accordeonist, Werner Thomas. A Belgian producer got hold of it 20 years later, recorded a more bouncy version and the snowball began to roll.
Before the advent of music videos, most people must have learnt new dances when they went to the movies.
Here’s Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire from 1942 teaching the conga to a group of curmudgeons .
Any similarity to the AW Disco is completely coincidental.
badartdog says
It’s all about the Gabber round these parts:
Fin59 says
You need to do the strand. You need to do simultaneously futuristic and retrogressive moves. OK?
Roxy Music
Do The Strand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykMdLEXQ4fQ
Rigid Digit says
A Gentlemans Excuse Me
Sound’s like an apology for a gas expulsion, but is actually a formal change of dance partner when a Gentleman will walk across the dance floor, tap the male partner on the shoulder and asks:
“Scuse me pal, can I dance wiv your bird?”
Locust says
In Swedish it’s known as “Damernas/herrarnas tjuv/tjyv” (“Ladies/Gentlemen’s Thief”) or “tjuvdans” (“Thieves’ Dance”) in general. A less polite expression, but perhaps more accurate…
Kaisfatdad says
Talking about a Gentleman’s Excuse Me, reminds of the timeI I attended (Finnish) Tango Club in Helsinki.
Finnish chaps are rather shy and unlikely to take the initiative and invite a lass up onto the dancefloor. So someone came up with Naisen Tansi (Ladies Dance), a point in the evening where the girls can invite the guys to dance. The moment they get their chance, those girls are like heat-seeking missiles. Talk about an offer you can’t refuse. A strangely terrifying experience.
Back to Mr Checker, It’s difficult to get away from Chubby on this thread. How many new dances did the poor man have to launch?
We’ve had the Fly. Now here’s the Pony.
Sniffity says
Plenty of dances namechecked and briefly demonstrated in this clip from The Blues Brothers
Sniffity says
Don’t forget Batman swinging a pretty mean cape
Sniffity says
And this one was mighty popular back in the late 70s
Kaisfatdad says
Holy disco balls, Sniffity. You came up with some fine clips there.
That clip is from the very first episode of the Batman TV show.
“I don’t want to to be conspicuous”
The Batusi, with the distinctive horizontal V sign in fron of the eyes, became a major dance craze in its own right. Inspired of curse by the Watusi. The Orlons had the first hit with the Wah Watusi in June 1962
but many other artists were rapid to do a cover version: Chubby Checker (now there’s a surprise), Anette Funicello, Smokey Robinson, Anette Funicello and the Vibrations.
Puerto Rican, the great Ray Barretto, had a big hit with his funky latin version El Watusi.
Whike trying to find a clip of the Watusi, I stumbled acros this labour of love: a history of single dance.
It takes a while to get started but there are some interesting clips, not least a group Skaking to ska from the 1950s.
Alias says
What a fantastic clip. I always thought that skanking was a dance you did to reggae, but I guess the name gives it away. If anyone wants to try some of these dances here are some instructions.
http://sixtiescity.net/Culture/dance.htm
anton says
anton says
because….
anton says
true boys dance without moving…
Kaisfatdad says
Glad to get a perspective from another corner of the dance floor, Anton. Two fine tracks.
That Pop Group vid is a treat. There’s a sequence where a group of morose chaps are going round and round in circles in a tent, Fascinating. Some kind of anti-dance?
When I think of dance crazes, the 60s come to mind. Not least Locomotion Hitmaker, Little Eva. She got her break because she was Carole King’s babysitter (the notes for this YT clip are well worth a read).
In one of her hits she sings about a dance her grandma did: The Turket Trot, a dance from the Ragtime era.
It was considered to be so licentious that it was denounced by the Vatican and you could get sacked for doing it in your lunchbreak.
Pre-WW1, there was a craze for novelty animal dances.
Like The Grizzly Bear:
Sniffity says
Naturally, there are times when you need to study at length the moves being grooved…here’s somewhere wherein you can check out what’s “in” before taking in the wisdom…
http://www.zefrank.com/invite/swfs/index2.html
Sniffity says
Of course, there are times when a new dance is just too contrived, or too clearly created as a cash-in…this may explain why The Lurch didn’t quite take off
mikethep says
This didn’t really catch on either.
Kaisfatdad says
Mr Pastry! A childhood favourite and to my delight it’s still very amusing.
anton says
I think the morose men may be from Cruising?
Sniffity says
And there are times when there just isn’t enough music to support a dance eg the Lambada – there seemed to be just the one song by Kaoma with with you could throw those shapes.
Of course, see the movie if you can – “Lambada: The Forbidden Dance” – in which a princess from the Amazon rainforest travels to the US and enters a televised dance competition in order to raise awareness of the destruction of said rainforest, using the Lambada, which we are informed was banned for 75 years for being “too zexy”
Kaisfatdad says
I don’t think I’ll be in a rush to see that film. Sniffity. But Lambada is one of the few of the fad dances that we’ve been talking about that had actually built up a grassrrots following before it went international.
Here from 1976 is the first Brazilian song in the Lambada genre
Lambada (Sambão) by Pinduca
Brazil had quite a Lamabada scene. in the late 70s.
Kaoma’s hit was an unapproved an up-beat version of a song originally by Bolivian group Las Kjarkas: Lorando se fue. Kjarkas sued for plagiarism and won.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zemmrDEUZEE
Sniffity says
If you were a viewer of certain TV cartoon shows in the late sixties, you could learn a new dance every week (I don’t think any of them caught on, though; complex choreography can be expensive to animate, and Filmation were not a company that went with expensive)…
Kaisfatdad says
What a find! An Addams Family themed dance.
Here’s Lurch doing his moves to James Brown. (!)
The show’s theme song would have made a pretty good dance number in its own right.
Rob C says
THIS:
Sniffity says
And this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsOt384btKo
Rob C says
That’s the stuff 🙂
Kaisfatdad says
I was hoping to find a dance craze from Oz or NZ. Then I remembered this joyous clip that Mr Celebration shared a few years back. One of the great recent innovations is not so much a new dance but gathering together in large numbers to dance together: a flash mob.
Not sure which dance they are doing, but there’s a little Batusi going on.
Do we have any flashers among us?
Sniffity says
Don’t know where it originated, but New Zealander Ray Columbus shows some of the Mod Nod throughout parts of this performance
I’ve always wondered what they’d slipped into the bass player’s tea beforehand…
Johnny Concheroo says
Two Fender Strats and a Precision bass in in New Zealand! In 1964! They must have thought they’d got the fucking crown jewels!
Mousey says
NZ in the mid-sixties was thriving with great bands and pop singles. We even manufactured our own amps, I remember Jansen being a favoured brand. Info here on the wonderful Audio Culture site which has everything you ever wanted to know about NZ music, and is constantly being added to.
http://www.audioculture.co.nz/scenes/new-zealand-made-guitar-amps
anton says
is it safe?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihCbVT637aM
anton says
and a slow one
Sniffity says
Once upon a time, one good dance routine could support an act for decades, as demonstrated here by Wilson, Keppel and Betty doing their “Sand Dance” routine..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fqjsijaMM
hubert rawlinson says
Tried to put this on earlier but had no luck from my tablet.
Bring your own sand.
So have this one
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks Hubert. Not heard that gem before. No point in posting the Bonzos’ Trouser Press as most of us know it by heart.
So here’s a song that namechecks many 60s dance crazes. A hit from Zappa’s alma mater, the Del Monte Legion Stadium, made famous by Wilson Pickett.
Cannibal and the Headhunters – Land of a thousand dances
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiZ6KhlkKrY
Kaisfatdad says
Where would wedding discos be without a visit to the YMCA ?
Village People’s ode to the joys of the gay lifestyle, complete with movements, has become the favourite of grandpas and grandmas the world over.
Fatboy Slim is unlikely to suffer the same fate but there are some great moves in this clip from She’s all that.
Sniffity says
When it comes to dancing in the street, it’s hard to beat this young lady for some top terpsichorean moves…
Kaisfatdad says
She is wonderful. So much joy in her dancing.
Let’s have another! It’s Saturday after all.
Sniffity says
Whether on the beach or in a cheese shop, this one goes down well…
Kaisfatdad says
At times like this I miss @The_cheshire_cat, a man I know can really cut a rug.
Maybe a little Breton catnip will do the trick?
A dance from a village party, a “fest-noz”. Easy to do, it’s surprising circle dances have not caught on even more.
The Conga, Bunny Hop and the Letkis-Jenka are of course consistenetly popular. THe latter is now used for keep fit classes in Finland.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bagc7HlKf3w
hubert rawlinson says
Why Bunny Hop when you can Bear Dance?
Used to dance this many years ago, alas my terpsichorean days are over.
Sadly dance not pictured.
Kaisfatdad says
From the Bear to the Bare: you are a man of many parts, Hubert!
Is this the right dance?
hubert rawlinson says
Alas no. KFD. I recall it involved banging elbows on the floor then knees then head and finally the bottom. I’ll ask some medieval musicians of my acquaintance for the dance notation.
This may be of help.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoinot_Arbeau
Kaisfatdad says
Animal dance? As mentioned above, the Ragtime era was the great age of novelty dances named after birds and beasts: Bunny Hop, Crab Step, Gotham Gobble, Fish Walk etc
These were seen as rather vulgar and immoral and the only one that survived is the foxtrot.
On this page there are some instructions for how to dance without losing a sense of decorum.
http://walternelson.com/dr/ragtime-1step
“Do not wriggle the shoulders.
Do not shake the hips.
Do not twist the body.
Do not flounce the elbows.”
Flouncing elbows were not approved of by polite society!
Alias says
Dance songs are usually most successful when the lyrics give instructions on how to do the dance. This one is too funky to need instructions, but you get them anyway.
Fatback Band – (Are You Ready) Do the Bus Stop
Kaisfatdad says
Very true. The Time Warp, Shake a Tail Feather, Buffalo Girls, Let’s Twist again: just a few examples off the top of my head.
Alias says
Here’s an everyday street scene from Havana
Kaisfatdad says
Tony Verity was a veteran broadcaster on Radio Jamaica. Here he is presenting, in a strangely anthropological way, the skanking dance.
Might interest @alias.
Alias says
Thanks for that. Presumably the rowing dance demonstrated by a man and woman would be too risqué for 1960s Jamaican TV.
Rigid Digit says
Not so much “dancing” as “bumping into each other” – welcome to the Mosh Pit
Anthrax – Caught In A Mosh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q5FEmFCFyQ
Rigid Digit says
Headbanging isabout as close as you get to dancing at a HM gig. Likely to redult in a a case of whiplash.
Sounds like a cue for a song …
Metallica – Whiplash
Alias says
We have had instructions on how to dance to ska, it would only to be right to post similar instructions on how to headband.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u55RM7ARvh8
Kid Dynamite says
Those monks can cut a rug
Mousey says
Do The Jerk
Kaisfatdad says
Moshing, Metallica and those astounding breakdancing monks! Certainly a lot of variety here!
Next up a video by a Canadian indie band which was filmed in West Kington, Wiltshire and features the Chippenham Town Morris Men.
Men without Hats – The Safety Dance
And now, believe it or not, Something from this century. Beyonce’s Single Ladies (Put a ring on it) with its much imitated dance video.
The Hully Gully has not been mentioned too much, and just to prove how international it was, here is a Portuguese Hully Gully song from Conjunto Academico Jao Paulo.
Alias says
Here’s a Hully Gully about the delights of peanut butter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnaqZ7UQhPk
Alias says
Last time I went to Lisbon about 20 years ago, we were out one night looking for a bar or a club to go to. Down a back street there was dub booming out from a basement – problem solved. When the DJ took a break an African band came on and the place emptied instantly. Today I hear that the children of African immigrants in Lisbon are making great African music. The dance is called Kizomba and this is how you do it.
Kaisfatdad says
At the time of the first tango in Paris in 1912, many must have thought that it too was a fad that would soon be gone. It was in the French capital that the tango fever that would sweep Europe first began, probably as a result of the Argentinian sailors that would dance it on shore leave in Marseilles.
1913 was the Year of the Tango and everyone was jumping on this sexy, exotic bandwagon. Selfridges even had a Tango Hall. If you’re interested do read this excellent article by Christine Dennison:
http://www.history-of-tango.com/couple-dance.html
The consequences were many. The Finns were so keen that it went on to become their national dance. The Finnish tango is a far more mournful, melancholic slightly sloshed version and its king was Olavi Virta. This song isn’t a tango but you get the atmophere he created from this live clip.
And, after it had been such a hit in Paris and London, the high society of Buenos Aires, who had previously been very snooty about the tango and considered a rather vulgar, working class dance, embraced it as the national dance of Argentina.
Kaisfatdad says
In a quest to find out more about Selfridge’s Tango Room, I stumbled across this page with a print showing the various dances that were popular in the posh hotels in London and Paris in 1913.
http://www.northshorephotography.co.uk/commercial-photography-help-advice/2013/12/19/5-interesting-pictures-from-1913
Those dancers were rocking some exotic togs. The tango must have been immoral. Women were abandoning their corsets to dance it.
And now a page which tells of what happened when the tango hit Edwardian society and the problems of outraged mothers who wanted to keep their daughters away from this immorality.
http://www.edwardianpromenade.com/dance/tango-teas-and-tangocitis/
Sniffity says
The mazurka is a dance of Polish origin, but in 1970 it seemed there was one from Denmark that took some people’s interest…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B6rAxvadVU
Kaisfatdad says
Ole Softoft! The schoolboys’ favourite. That brings back some memories.
Those Danish “pilsner comedies” still have a certain cult status. Basically a kind of Carry On film or Brian Rix farce with a more generous amount of nudity.
There’s a sub-thread to be had here: films including the name of a dance.
Bedroom Mazurka, Last Tango in Paris, Waltz of the Toreadors, Oliver Twist ……..
I’ll get my coat.
Sniffity says
These days films can come and go in a matter of days when it comes to cinema release, but I recall one local movie house advertising Bedroom Mazurka and proudly declaring “12th big month!”
Locust says
No, no, no. The Mazurka films were NOT pilsner comedies, the “pilsner films” are a derogatory term coined by the critics for a certain type of simple comedies in Sweden in the 1930s!
No nudity, no sex, just simple humour and a few beers.
The “Mazurka…” etc films from Denmark were categorised in Sweden as “gladporr” (Happy porn? Fun porn?)
Kaisfatdad says
Ooops! Thanks Locust. I could get in a lot of trouble if I got those mixed up. Clearly you know a lot more about Scandinavian softcore porn than I do.
“Swedish sin” was of course world famous in the 50s and 60s but Hon dansade en sommer (1951) and Sommaren med Monika (1953) were neither porn nor happy. The latter was of course Bergman, a man not over-famous for providing laughs. Not surprising that those Danish comedies from the 70s had a longer stay at Aussie fleapits.
That Larks clip is a cracker, Mousey. All those girls going bonkers about a verylow-key and rather fine song!
An interesting PS to @mikethep ‘s marvelous clip from Bande a parte. The dance that the lovely Anna Karina was dancing was in fact the Hully Gully. The French kids just presumed it was the Madison because that was the dance in the news. Since then the HG has been called the Madison in France. This is mentioned in the Evolution of the Dance section on this interesting page.
https://socialdance.stanford.edu/Syllabi/Hully-Gully.htm
The HG was one of the first modern dances which was done in line rather than with a partner. Everyone could join in.
Loved the Hully Gully song about peanut butter, Alias. It made me wonder if some dances, like the HG, have had a longer shelf life because they generated more than one song.
The Twist had Twist and Shout, The Twist, Let’s Twist Again, Slow Twisting, Peppermint Twist …..
That Kizomba clip is marvelous and NSFW! That girl is hotter than a xindaloo.. There’s one peculair moment where her hot pants seem to get entangled with the male dancer’s trousers. Poor chap!
The Portuguese/Angolan band Buraka som sistema have made an impact as the performers of an energetic form of Kudoro. Amazing dancing in this clip.
Perhaps some dances, like this, the salsa and the tango, become a hit because they are enjoyable to watch rather than to do. I’ve noticed that Latin DJs always play a few cumbia and bachata tracks for those who can’t master those tricky salsa dance steps.
And finally to calm you all down, a piece about the etiquette of the Edwardian ballroom.
https://books.google.se/books?id=byDtCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=ragtime+tango+edwardian&source=bl&ots=8wsFwvGQH8&sig=F0ymQ2W-ewiLLRflaDg6hhp1vAM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjX46uThYnPAhWEjywKHXjOCWIQ6AEISDAJ#v=onepage&q=ragtime%20tango%20edwardian&f=false
I suspect I am the only person remotely interested in how Ragtime and Tango revolutionised the Edwardian dancefloor.
Sniffity says
So far we’ve only covered dances that have been created and evolved in the past up to the present day….but how will people dance in the future?
From 1966, German TV’s “Raumpatrouille”, set “the day after tomorrow”, showed us just how those crazy looking gherkins of days to come might strut their funky stuff…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJe-CdWsICY
Sniffity says
In 1969, Hammer’s “Moon Zero Two”, billed as the first sci-fi western and set in the distant year 2021, showed James Olsen relaxing in the lunar saloon and unwinding to the sinuous gyrations of The Go-Jo’s….(the action starts at about the 1:38 mark)
Fun Fact: The Go-Jo’s were a real dance group that appeared regularly on “Top Of The Pops” throughout the 60s and early 70s before being replaced by Pan’s People.
Sniffity says
And in the 25th century (as filmed in 1978) Buck Rogers showed those stiffs how to loosen up in order to get down and boogie…
Kaisfatdad says
Some impressive teamwork here, Sniffity. As I waltz back into the dancefloors of Edwardian London, you are hustling your way into the 25th century.
The Spacepatrol Orion clip was priceless. What moves! I suspect that the two actors who were trying to have a conversation in the foreground were having a tough time keeping a straight face.
Buck’s moves were not in the same class as Batman’s but I was glad to see Princess Ardala (thankyou IMDB) wearing the inevitable Space Bikini. What else would a girl travel the cosmos in?
Sniffity says
Since this thread’s temporarily back, here’s one I forgot to throw in…Brendan Bowyer giving you the lowdown on doing The Hucklebuck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P33V-wnfnzs
Had no idea he was Irish – just presumed he was American for some reason…s’pose the name should have tipped me off.
Sniffity says
And not really a dance as such – no-one else ever did it – but Ross Wilson and the laydeez demonstrate doing the Eagle Rock…
Nick Nock says
I’m not sure what sort of dance a Pharaoh or anyone else could do to this but he, it’s Miles and so it’s cool 🙂
Miles Davis and Pharaoh’s Dance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIC7-5TPj30
hubert rawlinson says
Pharoah’s Dance, seevWilson, Keppel and Betty above.