This is for people who grew up in the 70's or anytime before that. I need to know what kind of dances you did?

Question

I need to write a paper on social dances that were going on at least two generations before me ( 60's 70's etc). I need to know what role they played in your lives, what kinds of dances were done, cultural influences and things that were going on in the nation at that time and how that influenced the dances. Any information that you can give me will help. Thanks!

Answer 1

I DID grow up in the 1970s and was familier with the disco era very well. The most common dances I was aware of were:

The Bump (in which you bumped hips with your partner at different times in the song. However there never was a song called "The Bump")
The Hustle (based on the Van McCoy song "The Hustle")
The YMCA (based on the 1979 Village People song of the same name)
Locker dancing (this was predominently perfected by black, inner-city kids, it involved sharp movements of the arms, and karate-style hip kicks, all in time and in beat to the music)
Slam dancing (aggressive, often violent "dance", made popular at New York's CBGBs where punk music was born in 1976)
Pogo (although popularized more widely in the 1980s, it actually began in 1976 with the release of the song "Pogo Dancing" by The Vibrators the same year)
Break dancing (popularized on New York City streets by inner-city youth following the release of music by Curtis Blow, the Sugarhill Gang, and Grand Master Flash)


And there you have it.

Answer 2

Well, in the 60's you could "do the freddy", Twist, Jerk, Monkey, Pony, Swim, Mashed Potato, Skate, Hitchhiker, Egyptian, Shimmy, Temptation Walk and Locomotion

In the 70's we "Do the hustle" and we disco danced...rent Saturday night Fever... if you've never seen John Travolta do the hustle your dance education needs to be worked on!

Answer 3

Bugiloo; Watusi; Twist (Chubby Checkers); Bunny Hop (one long line of "hoppers"); Mash Potatoes; Shingaling; The Poney; The Swim; The Bump; There were still some waltzes done (123,123,123) in the early to latter 60's.

Answer 4

The Twist was a rock and roll dance popular in the early 1960s named after the song that originated it, The Twist. It was the first major international rock and roll dance style in which the couples did not have to touch each other while dancing.

It was arguably the product of a logical progression of popular hip-swiveling activities, from swing dances such as the Lindy, to the famous pelvic moves of Elvis Presley and other 1950s rock-and-roll stars, and even the late-1950s toy fad, the Hula Hoop.

The dance was first popularized by Chubby Checker in 1960 with a hit cover of the 1959 B-side and minor hit "The Twist" written by Hank Ballard. Checker's single became a smash hit, reaching #1 on the US charts. The song set a record, being the only single to reach #1 in two different chart runs (as it reached #1 in 1960, and then resurfaced, reaching #1 again in 1962).

Faced with explaining to the youthful audience how to do the dance, a member of Checker's entourage came up with the following description:

"It's like putting out a cigarette with both feet, and wiping your bottom with a towel, to the beat of the music."

In 1961, at the height of the Twist craze, patrons at New York's hot Peppermint Lounge on West 45th Street were twisting to the music of the house band, a local group from Jersey, Joey Dee and the Starliters. Their house song, "Peppermint Twist (Part 1)," became the number one song in the United States for three weeks in January 1962. Sailors and hookers, hipsters and weekending Yalies danced alongside New York's social elite, including the Duke of Windsor, at the legendary Peppermint Lounge.

In Latin America, the Twist craze was sparked in the 1960-62 period not by recordings by Checker or Ballard, but by Bill Haley & His Comets. Their recordings of "The Spanish Twist" and "Florida Twist" were major successes, particularly in Mexico, and the band were given the credit for starting the dance craze. Haley, in interviews at the time, was always quick to give credit to Checker and Ballard. Coincidentally, Checker appeared in two musicals that took their titles from the two films Haley made in the 1950s (the Checker films had the same producer): Twist Around the Clock (after Rock Around the Clock) and Don't Knock the Twist (after Don't Knock the Rock).






The Mashed Potato is a dance move which was a popular dance craze of 1962. It was danced to songs such as Dee Dee Sharp's "Mashed Potato Time". Also referred to as "mash potato" or "mashed potatoes", the move vaguely resembles that of the Twist, by Sharp's fellow Philadelphian, Chubby Checker.

The dance begins by stepping backward with one foot with that heel tilted inward. The foot is positioned slightly behind the other (stationary) foot. With the weight on the ball of the starting foot, the heel is then swiveled outward. The same process is repeated with the other foot: step back and behind with heel inward, pivot heel out, and so on. The pattern is continued for as many repetitions as desired. The step may be incorporated in various dances either as a separate routine or as a styling of standard steps.

"(Do the) Mashed Potatoes" was an early hit for James Brown and his band in 1960, reaching the R&B Top Ten; however, for contractual reasons the song was credited to "Nat Kendrick & The Swans" (Kendrick was Brown's drummer at the time) and released on Dade Records. Brown featured the dance prominently in his live performances during the 50s and 60s. The dance was also referred to in Connie Francis' 1962 hit "V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N" ("...we'll Mashed Potato to a jukebox tune..."), "Do You Love Me" by The Contours and "Land Of 1,000 Dances", a song made popular by Wilson Pickett. Bill Haley & His Comets had a Latin American hit in 1963 with "Pure de Papas", a song based on the dance craze.

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