No woman who has ever wandered around a dance floor with me would ever accuse me of being a great dancer. Somehow I’ve just never learned how to do anything more than a basic slow waltz. Actually, that’s not true. I could do the twist as well as the next guy as long as the next guy wasn’t Chubby Checker. There have been so many dance crazes throughout the years it’s hard to keep track of them. In the very early 20th century they had names like the Fanny Bump, the Grind, the Squat, the Lame Duck, Horse Trot, Grizzly Bear, Crab Step, Buzzard Lope, Turkey Trot, and Bunny Hug, which in Saskatchewan is also a hooded sweatshirt that others call a hoodie. As time moved on there came the Charleston, the Jitterbug, the Tango, the Sambo, the Mambo, the Rhumba and the Cha Cha Cha. Then we get into the baby boomer dances, like the Twist, the Madison, the Stroll, the Mashed Potato, the Locomotion, the Watusi, and so on. Later came the Disco era with the Hustle, the Bump and the YMCA. Then who could forget the Line Dance and the Macarena in the 1990’s? When I watch people dance today, and I’m talking about those after dinner dances to a live band or Dj, sometimes it seems not much has changed in half a century. One version of the Locomotion comes on and the line forms and away they go. The Twist is played and everyone on the dance floor starts gyrating just like it was 1960. And of course we shouldn’t forget country. The good old Two-Step is alive and well, as is the Polka, which to me looks like a sped up Two Step, neither of which I’m very good at so I’ll just sit this one out.
That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.
Dances through the years
By Syndicated Author
Jun 26, 2018 | 8:00 AM
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