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Tag: dance fads

Vintage Dance Crazes-Part 2

Vintage Dance Craze 1960s- Image of a 1960s couple doing the twist.

Few years ago I did a blog post on Vintage Dance Crazes and I always meant to getting around to doing a part 2. Well after much wait here it is!

Dance Craze or also called Fadβ€œ, is characterized by a short burst of popularity and sometimes gliding smoothly into tradition after their β€œnewness” has faded (like the twist which is still done today and the Lindy Hop which was originally a β€œDance Craze/Fad”), and sometimes simply fading away into oblivion (source).

Vintage Dance Crazes Part 2

Black Bottom Dance

Black Bottom Sheet Music and dance

Source: Wikipedia

Black Bottom, Jazz dance combining shoulder and hip movements, danced by African Americans in the U.S. South as early as 1907. In a modified version it became a national craze after its appearance in a 1926 Broadway musical.

The black bottom exhibited a number of features derived from the aesthetics of African dance, most notably syncopated rhythms, bent knees, crouched torsos, and hip and pelvic movements. Along with the Charleston, another dance that was popular in the 1920s, the black bottom helped shatter the dominance of couple dancing. Although people may have continued to dance opposite each other in pairs, they no longer held each other or danced in unison, and it was perfectly permissible for the dancer to dance singly (Source).

Some original pattern names for this dance are “The Flick, The Side Shuffle, The Walk.”

Other notes about the dance:

Originally starting in New Orleans the Black Bottom later worked its way to New York. Some say blues singer Alberta Hunter introduced the dance. Others say Perry Bradford in Nashville, Tennessee introduced it to white America in 1919 when he wrote the Song “The Black Bottom.” Bradford’s sheet music had the music as well as the dance instructions printed on them.

The stage Play “Dinah” in 1924 Harlem showcased the Black Bottom to the Public and almost overnight became as popular as the Charleston.

Jelly Roll Morton wrote a song called Black Bottom Stomp, there was a town called Black Bottom in Detroit, Michigan from 1900 to 1960. The dance was performed at the Apollo Theater in 1927 with the George White Scandals and the Roseland Ballroom (New York) even hosted a Black Bottom endurance (marathon) contest in 1927 (seen below). It was popular! ( Source)

1920s Vintage Photo: Black Bottom endurance contest, Roseland Ballroom, New York City, New York State, USA. 1927

The Hully Gully

Hully-Gully Vintage Dance Craze

The Hully Gully is a type of unstructured line dance often considered to have originated in the sixties, but is also mentioned some forty years earlier as a dance common in the black juke joints in the first part of the twentieth century.

The Hully Gully dance craze was started by Frank Rocco at the Cadillac Hotel in Miami and was based off the song of the same name, made popular by the Olympics in 1959.

While researching this dance, I came upon so many different descriptions of how this dance was actually done. From being a more “structured line dance” (Sadly the video is no longer avail), to a freestyle version that you see in the Olympics video below. I’m totally confused, but I do know that whatever version you do end up dancing it sure looks fun!

The Stroll

The Stroll was both a slow rock ‘n’ roll dance and a song that was popular in the late 1950s.

Billboard first reported that “The Stroll” might herald a new dance craze similar to the “Big Apple” in December 1957.

In the dance two lines of dancers, men on one side and women on the other, face each other, moving in place to the music. Each paired couple then steps out and does a more elaborate dance up and down between the rows of dancers. It was first performed to “C. C. Rider” by Chuck Willis on American Bandstand. Link Wray’s “Rumble” was also a popular tune for doing the stroll.

The Diamonds would go on to have a hit song entitled The Stroll in 1957.

When 1950s nostalgia came to the forefront in the 1970s, The Stroll saw renewed public awareness. It was used in the film American Graffiti (1973) during the scene at the high school dance and is mentioned in some of the lyrics in the musical Grease.

The Stroll was an integral part of most episodes of the dance TV series Soul Train, where host and creator Don Cornelius dubbed it the “Soul Train Line.”(Source).

Lastly the stroll is also very popular in the Rockabilly world and is almost always seen being danced at some Weekender (Like VLV) or Rockabilly Party (as seen below). It should be noted though, that the Rockabilly stroll is danced differently then the Dick Clark version shown above.

Well friends, we have come to the end of Vintage Dance Crazes Part 2. I feel that a part 3 is in order because I still have not touched on so many others. So stay tuned for that!

Question Time: Do you have a favorite dance craze either mentioned above (or in Part 1) or not featured? Share in the comments section below.

FURTHER READING:

Now to end this fun post here is a short video on the “Latest in Dancing” circa 1962.

Liz

Vintage Dance Crazes

Wednesday night I was at the Canadian National Exhibition (a big fair held every year in Toronto. Blog post HERE) to check out a performer that has been on my bucket list for quiet some time..CHUBBY CHECKER! Yes the Twister himself..Chubby Checker.

chubby checker

The concert was fantastic and filled with tons of energy and I came away with a big smile after it was done. Here is a collage of the evening.

Chubby Checker at the CNE

The next day as I was driving to work, I got to thinking about how the Twist was quintessentially a “Dance Craze or also called Fad“, which are characterized by a short burst of popularity and sometimes gliding smoothly into tradition after their “newness” has faded (like the twist which is still done today and the Lindy Hop which was originally a dance craze), and sometimes simply fading away into oblivion (source).

Then I wanted to know what OTHER dances were also Dance Crazes and then share them with you. Here are highlights of some of the fun one’s I found (trust me when I say there are many more).

Note: Link to part 2 is at the end of the post.

Vintage Dance Crazes (Part 1)

Vintage Dance Craze

The Carioca

The word “Carioca” refers to inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro and was a 1933 popular song with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Edward Eliscu and Gus Kahn, as well as the name of the dance choreographed to it for the 1933 film Flying Down to Rio.

In the movie the routine was done by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers with the main characteristic of the dance being that it was to be danced with the partners’ foreheads touching.

While the song has become a jazz standard, the dance did not have longevity. Following the success of Flying Down to Rio, an attempt was made to propagate it as a new ballroom dance, without much success (source).

Dance Marathons 

People loved to dance, especially the Charleston, Fox trot, and the shimmy. Dance marathons were something everyone went to every weekend and developed into entertainment events during the Great Depression in the 1930s. These marathons would last anywhere from a few hours to a days and even weeks.

The Big Apple

Is a group participation circle dance that uses swing dance for a host of steps. The Big Apple has some roots in the Ring Shout and Square Dance as well. Sometimes a solo or couple would perform in the center of the circle (like today’s modern jams) as the rest of the dancers would dance in a circle around them (source).

Originating at the “Big Apple Night Club” in the Palmetto state of Columbia, South Carolina around 1936.

dancing the big apple-Vintage Dance Craze

This dance is cued by a caller, dancers performed moves from the Lindy Hop, Shag, and Charleston, and popular jazz steps like Trucking and Pecking. Some of the names of steps were called “Spank The Baby, Rusty Dusty, Charleston, Suzy-Q, Pose & A Peck, Boogie Back, Shorty George, and Truckin (source).

You can still see the Big Apple today in many Lindy Hop dance scenes.

The Bunny Hop

Is a novelty dance that was created at Balboa High School in San Francisco in 1952. It is a social mixer dance, sometimes also referred to as a “party” or “dance party” dance. See my blog post on the dance HERE.

The Madison

I LOVE THIS DANCE! Years ago I took a class on how to dance the Madison and I have been obsessed with wanting to dance it again..soon.

The Madison Dance Steps

The Madison is a novelty dance that was popular in the late 1950s to mid-1960s. The Madison was created and first danced in Columbus, Ohio, in 1957. The local popularity of the dance and record in Baltimore, Maryland, came to the attention of the producers of The Buddy Deane Show in 1960. Picked up by dance shows across the country, it became widely popular.

The Madison is a line dance that features a regular back-and-forth pattern interspersed with called steps. Its popularity inspired dance teams and competitions, as well as various recordings, and today it is still sometimes performed as a nostalgic dance. The Madison is featured in the John Waters movie Hairspray, seen below (source).

The Mashed Potato

Is a dance move which was a popular dance craze of 1962. The dance move was made famous by James Brown and used in his concerts regularly. It was danced to songs such as Dee Dee Sharp’s “Mashed Potato Time”. The move vaguely resembles that of the Twist, by Chubby Checker (source).

Last but not least I will leave you with everyone’s favorite…

The Hand Jive!

The hand jive was invented at The Cat’s Whisker, a coffee bar situated in Soho, London, during the mid-late 1950s. It was invented because there was no space to manoeuvre in the crowded basement other than to do ‘hand dancing’. It is a dance particularly associated with music of the 1950s, rhythm and blues.  It involves a complicated pattern of hand moves and claps at various parts of the body, following and/or imitating the percussion instruments (source).

The hand jive was popularized in the States by Johnny Otis’s “Willie and the Hand Jive”.

Most people remember it from the Movie Grease.

And that is all for now, but like I said above there are many many more, so you can see “Dance Crazes Part 2” HERE.

Question time! Do you have a favorite Dance Craze or Fad (vintage or modern)? Share in the comments below.

FURTHER READING:

Liz πŸ™‚