How to 70s dance
Funky Flashback: Popular 1970’s Dance Moves | ATOMIC Ballroom
Skip to content Funky Flashback: Popular 1970’s Dance MovesWith all of the dance crazes that have swept through pop culture over the years, it can be quite a task to remember them all. One era that arguably stood out from the rest was the 1970’s. A time period of major political and cultural shift helped to create a unique time of artistic expression and creativity unlike any other before it. With so many new music trends coming out, plenty of new dance trends soon followed. This helped create a demand for more dance on TV with the addition of shows like Soul Train, which went on to shape dance, music and pop culture well into the 21st Century. Dancing became even more important to this new generation of club goers as more discotheques began to spring up all over the place. Known for loud polyester clothing, platform shoes, and of course disco music, this era of free love and flower power helped fuel some of the wildest dance crazes ever. Regardless of ones birth year, people across many generations can easily identify specific fashions from the 70’s, but how about the dances? Let’s have a look as we flash back to the funky 1970’s!
1. The Hustle
In 1975, singer Van McCoy told everyone to “Do The Hustle!” in his popular song of the same name. The song and dance became so big that the name hustle became linked to most disco-style dances from that time. As a result, there were many different styles of hustle. West Coast vs. East Coast as well as partner and line dance variations. The couples version soared in popularity after being featured in the cult classic film Saturday Night Fever. This mix of Swing and Latin dance to a 70s disco beat is still performed today in ballrooms across the world.
2.The Bump
Like many other dance crazes, the Bump was a simple dance that didn’t require learning a lot of complicated steps. In fact, it only consisted of one main step! As pairs of dancer swayed to the music while standing side by side, they would come together to bump hips about every other beat of music. Even though the idea was to bump gently, smaller dancers would often be sent flying across the dance floor by heavier dancers who bumped too hard! The dance also inspired a few songs of the same name, but could be done to just about any song.
3.
YMCA dance
Much like a nursery rhyme, this song is loved by children (and adults) everywhere, and has a simple, catchy hook that is hard to get out of your head.
The iconic 1978 song “YMCA” by The Village People, spawned the popular dance that is one of the few which does not require the use of ones feet. Participants need only move their arms to form the letters Y, M, C, A, whenever those letters are sung in the lyrics. People generally skip around and freestyle during other parts of the song. This dance is so catchy, simple and fun for all that is still commonly done today, primarily in the stands at sporting games, weddings and other social events.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9OO0S5w2k&index=5&list=PL3FDDE4369CCABEF7
4.Funky Chicken Dance
One of the most colorful dances from this or any time, the Funky Chicken was a solo dance that basically imitated the jerky movements of a chicken walking around. It had steps like “chicken legs” and “chicken wings”, and differed from the Chicken Dance done at wedding receptions.
5.The Disco Finger
Another dance synonymous with the film Saturday Night Fever, this move required minimal movement below the knees. Most people just imitate John Travolta’s stance with hips thrusting from side to side as the right index finger rhythmically points from the floor moving back and forth across the body up to the sky.
6. The Bus Stop
Not as simple for the rhythmically challenged, however still catchy and quintessential ’70s!
7.The Robot
Also sometimes called the Mannequin, this street dance often causes viewers to think they are seeing an optical illusion, as the some of the movements are subtle yet impactful, and tough to replicate.
This is a dance style that typically takes years of practice to achieve much less master. Starting in the 70’s along side the growing break dancing scene, it skyrocketed to infamy as one of Michael Jackson’s signature moves, and is still a staple in the hip-hop and pop worlds.
8. The Lawnmower
A relatively simple yet silly dance that can be done by just about anyone. Ready for this? Just pull one arm back as if you’re starting a lawnmower, then grab the imaginary handle and with arms extended push the mower back and forth across an imaginary lawn. Tired yet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL2bZYWO8p0
9. The Sprinkler
No fancy footwork needed for this dance. As the name implies, simply extend one arm out at your side, with the other arm bent while holding your hand up to your head.
Then move your straight arm in a slow, staccato fashion as if it were a sprinkler watering a lawn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qYR5gVsoY4
10.The Electric Slide
This four wall line dance was originally set to Marcia Griffiths’ song “Electric Boogie“. Created in 1976, it has gone on to become a staple at weddings, concerts and other social gatherings for decades. It’s repetitious pattern makes it easy to learn in a short time, and the fact that it can be danced to a variety of music genres allows it to fit well into a variety of music and dance styles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mOY2eWO2qw
Although the 70’s have come and gone, the era will live on through its nostalgic music and carefree dance steps that will carry on for generations to come.
About the Author: Nneka
Having fearlessly explored every continent, Nneka is multi-lingual and passionate about travel, culture and life.
A SDSU alumni, she has worked in KTVU Fox's newsroom, interviewed notable figures and hosted programs for various media outlets. She has also written features for The San Leandro Times and LostGirlsWorld.com. Also a seasoned performer and fitness professional, Nneka holds several fitness certifications, has shared the stage with entertainment icons, and has appeared on various TV Shows. Follow her global adventures in the arts and beyond on IG @nnekaworldtrekker.
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How to do disco dancing moves from the '70s: The Hustle, Bump, Walk, Foxy Trot and more
Disco Dancing: Do your own thing (It’s not Lawrence Welk)
By Kitty Hanson – The Times Herald (Port Huron, Michigan) April 2, 1979
In disco dancing, almost anything goes. The dance is characterized by a casual, yet controlled, rhythmic movement of the whole body, underscored by a pulsing vertical motion through the knees. As partners dance in the “apart” position without hand-to-hand or body contact, and therefore need not lead or follow, the beat of the music may also be expressed with individual interpretations.
Steps and-or movements may be taken on each beat of the music, on each half-beat, or on each second beat of the music. The catchy throbbing beat of disco music and the do-your-own-thing nature of the dance itself give both the novice and the experienced dancer more opportunity to interpret music and rhythm personally than does any other dance: each partner may express his individual feeling of the music by styling or rhythmic variations.
The choice of styling and intensity of body movements are up to your own personal interpretation. The following instructions should provide you with a basic framework of dance steps from which to build.
Unless you are otherwise advised, all dance experts say your knees should always be a bit flexed — something like the position you take in golf or tennis. Bending your knees just a bit loosens your hips and leaves your body free for movement.
At this point, remember you’re not concerned with “learning steps.” What you are after is to be able to stand there and move a little bit so that can enjoy the rhythm and the scene without feeling rooted to the ground.
What you are doing in this first Fred Astaire instruction is getting the basic disco rhythms.
A note on dance instruction terminology: We have tried to translate some of the professional language into “people language,”‘ but you should also know the correct terminology.
The word “close,” is a verb, as in “close the door,” and it describes the action of bringing one foot to the other. The terms ‘point’: or “touch” (Which we have called ‘move’) indicate that the foot is lifted, moved, pointed, and touched lightly to the floor, but that you do not put your weight on it, and not taking a step. A “step” means that you move the foot and put your weight on it
Start out by standing easily and casually, your feet just a bit apart. Since the man always starts with his left foot, most of his weight should be on his right foot. The woman, who always starts dancing with her right foot, should feel most of her weight resting on her left foot.
How to dance with the basic disco rhythm
Man’s Steps:
1 — Close your left foot to the right foot and, at the same time, flex or bend your knees slightly: Count One.
2 — Now, move your right foot to the side without putting your weight on it. At the same time, straighten your knees: Count Two.
3 — Bring your right foot back to the left foot and bend your knees slightly again: Count Three.
4 — Now move your left foot to the side, but don’t put your weight on it. Straighten the knees: Count Four.
Woman’s Steps:
The woman dances the direct opposite of the man’s steps, beginning with her right foot.
Now put on the music as you practice this basic disco rhythm, Relax and enjoy the music. You will soon feel a pulsing response to the beat. Allow your arms to swing naturally (try opening and closing — or back and forth — in coordination with the steps) and don’t be afraid to turn your body a little this way and that.
Now that you’ve got the feet going and the arms going, try a little bit of extra styling. Lift your hip upward and to the left as you move the left foot; then lift the hip upward and to the right as you move the right foot.
Once you have practiced the basic disco rhythm until your body is responding to the music with an easy and comfortable motion, you can begin to do variations. Try moving your foot forward — several times on the beat, and then back- ward. When you dance the basic disco rhythm moving backward, use a slight forward tilt of the body as you move the foot. When you dance the basic disco rhythm moving forward, try using a slight turn of the shoulders for added effect.
As you can see, we’re talking about movements here rather than steps. And even though you are being taught certain movements, once you get the hang of the movements and the beat, it becomes free-styling, because it is entirely up to you which yay you move and what you do with your arms and hips while you are doing it.
Men’s and Woman’s Steps:
With the basic disco rhythm, you have been dancing one movement on each beat of the music. By doubling up the tempo, you will dance the same movement on each half-beat of the measure.
Instead of one, two, three, four, you count and one, and two, and three, and four. In this instance, you flex the knees
Slightly on each “and” count and straighten them on the counts of one, two, three, four. Practice the tempo of your movements to fit the count of and one, and two, and three, and four.
Side Cross Step
Man’s Steps:
1 — Left foot steps to the side: Count One.
2 — Right foot crosses in front of the right: Count Two.
3 — Left foot steps to the side again: Count Three.
4 — Right foot points to the side with- out putting your weight on it: Count Four.
5-8 — Repeat the above steps, but this time beginning with the right foot to the side, and alternating the movements to the other side: Count One, Two, Three, Four.
Woman’s Steps:
The woman dances directly opposite the man’s steps, beginning with her right foot.
How to dance The Bump
You will have fun dancing the bump, especially with a responsive partner.
The basic movement of the bump is easy to learn. As you dance the steps described below, simple exaggerate the outward lifting of the hip where indicated. Make this a sharp motion, as if bumping an object out of your way. Pretend you’re trying to open a kitchen door with both arms filled with grocery bags.
In the basic disco rhythms, you were dancing “step-move.”‘ Now that action will become “step-bump.” Relax movement and weight. You probably will find it more fun to do several bump actions in succession.
Man’s and Woman’s Steps:
1 — Put your left foot forward, turning it a quarter (14) to the left: Count One.
2– Right foot moves to the side, without weight; at the same time, bump the right hip to the side: Count Two.
3-4 — Bump the right hip to the side two additional times: Count Three, Four.
9 — Right foot steps backward. turning a quarter to the right: Count One.
6 — Left foot moves to the side, without weight, and at the same time, bump the left hip to the side: Count Two.
7-8 — Bump the left hip to the side two additional times: Count Three, Four.
The American Hustle dance
Because there are so many versions of even a basic American Hustle, we, as amateur dancers — well, actually, non-dancers — have presented the basic and turning steps we found easiest to do. They lack the high style of the Fred Astaire Studio steps, but they will get you started.
Basic Step, Man:
Stand with feet together, just slightly apart from your partner.
1 — Move left foot slightly to the side, just touching the ball of your foot to the floor, but don’t put any weight on it. (Some teachers call this “point,” some say “touch,” but in any case, that’s how you do it.): Count One.
2 — Close your left foot to the right foot, transferring your weight to the left: Count Two.
3 — Touch or point or move your right foot slightly to the side, but don’t put your weight on it: Count Three.
4 — Close your right foot to the left foot, transferring your weight to the right foot: Count Four.
§ — Step in place on the left foot: Count Five.
6 — Step in place on the right foot: Count Six.
Basic Step, Woman:
Stand with feet together, your weight over the left foot.
1 — Move the ball of the right foot slightly to the side, but do not put your weight on it: Count One.
2 — Close the right foot to the left foot, transferring weight to the right foot: Count Two.
3 — Move the left foot slightly to the side, just touching the ball of the foot to the floor, but don’t put any weight on it: Count Three.
4 — Close the left foot to the right foot. transferring the weight to the left foot: Count Four.
9 — Step in place on the right foot: Count Five.
6 — Step in place on the left foot: Count Six.
This is easiest to learn as a partner dance if you just hold hands, in what is called a four-hand-clasp. Later you can do it in the classic dance position.
In doing the basic American Hustle, which is very informal, it isn’t necessary to plant your foot in any exact spot.
What is important is that you get the rhythm: ‘Move, step, move, step.” Once you’ve got the rhythm, you can add Hustle styling simply by lifting your hip up and out as you move.
How to dance the California Hustle
The California Hustle is a line dance, and a favorite among the many line dances enjoying popularity throughout the country.
Also known as the Bus Stop, it is danced, not as a couple, but by individuals in a group who follow a prescribed sequence of steps, in rhythm, and using the same foot. It’s performed in an infinite variety of combinations in different parts of the country and even varies from town to town.
No distinctions is made this time between the man’s steps and the woman’s, since they are identical. Although the dance is described as three separate patterns, the movements are actually danced one after the other to make a complete sequence. You then repeat the sequence as often as the music requires — or as long as your legs hold out.
Back and Forward Steps:
1-3 — Beginning with the right foot, take three steps backward, right, left. right: Count One, Two, Three.
4 — Slap the left foot against the right foot without weight, and clap your hands: Count Four.
7 — Beginning with the left foot, take three steps forward, left, right, left: Count One. Two, Three.
8 — Slap the right foot against the left foot without weight and clap your hands: Count Four.
9-12 — Repeat Steps One through Four, beginning with the right foot: Count One, Two, Three, Four.
Side-to-Side Steps:
1 — Left foot steps to the side: Count One.
2 — Right foot crosses behind the left foot: Count Two.
3 — Left foot steps to the side again: Count Three.
4 — Slap the right foot against the left foot without weight and clap your hands: Count Four.
5-8 — Dance Steps One through Four to the opposite side, beginning with the right foot: Count One, Two, Three.
Four.
9-10 — Left foot steps to the side; slap the right foot against the left foot without weight: Count One, Two.
11-12 — Right foot steps to the side: slap the left foot again the right foot without weight: Count Three, Four.
The swivel and toe-tap step is the most complicated of the three patterns that make up the California Hustle. Do it slowly and carefully at first until you have become thoroughly familiar with all the movements.
This is the final sequence of the California Hustle Step. After you’ve done it, repeat all three sequences over again — and over again — starting with the back and forward Steps, continuing to the side-to-side, then to the swivels and toe-taps.
Notice that your count changes emphasis on this step.
1 — Swivel quickly on the balls of both feet with what might be described as a Charleston step — the heels apart and then heels together, two times. (Your feet should form a V-shape.): Count ‘and’ One, ‘and’ Two.
2 — Tap the right toe forward without weight.
two times: Count Three, Four.
3 — Tap the right toe backward without weight two times: Count One. Two.
4– Tap the right toe forward without weight once: Count Three.
5– Tap the right toe backward without weight once: Count Four.
6-7 — Repeat Steps Four and Five once: Count One, Two.
& — Tap the right toe to the side without weight, at the same time turning one quarter to the left: Count Three.
9 — Kick the right foot forward: Count Four.
Once you have learned the California Hustle (or Bus Stop), teach it to your friends. It’s fun to dance at parties.
How to do the hustle (video)
1. American Hustle
2. Latin Hustle
3.
Rope Hustle4. Hustle Cha
5. Tango Hustle
6. The Bump
7. Foxy Trot
8. The Walk
Disco dance moves from the ’70s: Don’t let the Hustle grind you down
by Peter McCabe – American Home (April, 1976)
If you haven’t yet caught Hustle fever, you will. It is as infectious as Asian flu. It was born about 18 months ago, though nobody seems to know where. The black dance clubs and the gay haunts are both claiming credit. Discotheques now give free lessons in it, which suggests that the country’s dance instructors may have had something to do with its origins.
Disco music, or music to Hustle by, has had a big impact on the record industry. Many new records now become well-known first through disco exposure rather than radio. And the dance is not confined to any age group or class. It is everywhere, and it seems to be taking over.
A few months ago, I opened the magazine section of a Sunday newspaper and read an official heraldry of what was termed a phenomenon. The article declared that “this new dance, The Hustle, marks the end of the free-expression dancing era where your partner was often five or six feet away. Now there is no ad-libbing and no faking it. Either you hustle or you sit.”
Now although I consider the Hustle to be an enjoyable dance, which can be executed simply or with amazing complexity, I’m the kind of person who objects to being told what to do on a dance floor. So I decided to check out discotheques at both ends of the country — and in a few cities in between. In some spots I witnessed what I would call a well-balanced mixture of dancing, some Hustling, some not.
But in New York and California, I noticed that the Hustlers adopted a different strategy. On the dance floor, they all seemed to come to the same conclusion at the same time, and by a process of what seemed like osmosis, they all suddenly formed a line.
This line eventually broke down into several smaller linear formations, but it nonetheless had its desired effect — which was to drive all the non-Hustlers off the floor and into the safety and comfort of the bars, where they sat nursing their drinks and glowering at the rhythmic, coordinated and victorious opposition. Needless to say, it is not much fun sitting in a bar when you can be dancing to Labelle’s “Voulez-Vous Couchez Avec Moi.”
Now since Hollywood and New York have been known on previous occasions to foist their examples on others, this trend puzzled and depressed me. I have always believed that the way most of us danced in the late ’60s was a most exciting, pleasurable and even liberating experience. After several years of Twists and Bristol Stomps and Mashed Potatoes, it was a welcome epoch of laissez-faire. And it was especially welcomed by men (at least white males), who by and large began to take a new pride in the sensual movement of their bodies.
So I paid a visit to a friend, a disco Dee Jay, and told him of my feelings on the subject.
He said that he, too, had noticed this tendency for Hustlers to browbeat the non-Hustlers, and for non-Hustlers to be overcome with remorse on encountering a room full of heel-toe, heel-toeites.
He said the Hustle was never intended to be dictatorial, pointing out that one of the earliest and most popular Hustle records was a song called “Do It Any Way You Want.” He thought that message spoke for itself.
I said that I thought most of the people who danced the Hustle ritualistically in the discos had rather bored, vapid and expressionless faces when they danced. He agreed, adding that he’d been especially amused one night to see a middle-aged man unconcernedly do the Freddie for a solid hour, although surrounded by Hustlers. The man cleared enough space for a truck.
“Should non-Hustlers resist doing the Hustle?” I asked him.
“You cannot fight it,” he said with a shrug, “but perhaps the best policy is to know how, and then do exactly what you want.”
That sounded like good advice, rather like knowing karate.
It’s there when you need it, even if you never have to use it. So here is the basic Hustle step, which is all one really needs to know, and has been seen being executed by both Jackie Onassis and David Bowie, though not together.
Your music list
For practice I would recommend the following albums:
1) Dance Your Troubles Away by Archie Bell and the Drells (TSOP)
2) Happy ‘Bout The Whole Thing by D.D. Sharp (TSOP)
3) Disco Reggae by Byron Lee and the Dragonaires (Mercury)
4) Heat of the City by Barrabas (Atlantic)
5) Save Me by the Silver Convention (RCA)
If you’d rather just buy singles, you could choose from:
1) “It Only Takes a Minute” by Tavares (Capitol)
2) “What a Difference a Day Makes” by Esther Phillips (Motown)
3) “Fly, Robin, Fly” by the Silver Convention (RCA)
4) “Let’s Do the Latin Hustle” by Eddie Drennin (Friends & Co.)
Within half an hour, you won’t even be looking at your feet.
1 Part. 70s: How it all began. READ>>
Part 1. The Seventies. How it all began
Dance culture today is a multifaceted phenomenon, consisting of many directions, subcultures, covering all corners of our planet. This is a global multi-million dollar industry that has a wide influence on fashion, cinema, which has become an integral part of the lives of so many people. It should be noted that currents that originate on the street had a huge impact on its formation. By "street dancing" we mean a set of styles that were originally born on the street at the turn of the 70s of the 20th century, among the youth, going hand in hand and influencing each other. First of all, this is b-boying, popping, locking, hip-hop and house, and then some others. It should be noted that at a certain stage, street dancing entered the clubs, creating a "club dance culture". Also, street directions have penetrated dance studios, where today they are developing very successfully.
Over the past time, this culture has evolved greatly, but its essence has largely remained the same. It is the freedom of expression, creativity and competitive spirit that still attracts many people around the world to its ranks and sets it apart from other phenomena in choreography.
For a more complete understanding of this cultural phenomenon, it is necessary to turn to the origins of street dances and consider the prerequisites for their appearance. It should be noted that people have been dancing throughout the history of mankind, we know the folk and social dances of various nations and ethnic groups. A distinctive feature of social dances is the absence of clear movements learned once and for all, on the contrary, improvisation and self-expression are welcome. Of course, people also danced in the street. However, never before has street dance culture become so mainstream, spawned a lucrative industry, and had such a strong impact on humanity.
The homeland of the street dances described here is America. Los Angeles and New York are the two centers where, independently of each other, directions were born, which later turned from social dances into the “mainstream”. Let us dwell in more detail on the reasons that led to this. Two main factors can be identified. The sixties of the 20th century are characterized by the growth of the self-consciousness of the black population of America, its struggle against segregation, the struggle for civil rights and equality of people regardless of skin color. Mass protests, speeches by Martin Luther King, semi-sabotage organizations like the Black Panthers - all this changed the minds of African Americans, giving them confidence and understanding of the uniqueness of their culture. Another factor is music. In the sixties, a new direction appeared - "funk". The founders of the style were James Brown, George Clinton and Sly Stone. The word funk is slang, it directly means a selfless dance to the point of getting very wet, but in fact it is an expression of the uniqueness of each person's personality.
Funk, first of all, is dance music, which determines its musical features: frequent use of syncopation (the so-called "funky beat"), strong groove, pulsating rhythm, screaming vocals, repeated repetition of short melodic phrases. Of course, new music could not but give birth to a new dance. That is exactly what happened.
Seventies. Los Angeles. New York
a) Los Angeles
The locking dance that started it all appeared in 1969-1970. In Los Angeles. It is with locking that the history of modern street dancing begins. It is far from always possible to find out the names of the discoverers of styles. As a rule, this or that street direction arises in a somewhat vague social environment or a number of clubs, and is developed by a group of people, often independently of each other. Therefore, every now and then the historical primacy is disputed, many facts are interpreted ambiguously, but in the case of locking, one can accurately indicate the ancestor.
The founder of the locking style is Don Campbell.
In 1969, Don was a student at the Los Angeles Trade and Technical College, was fond of drawing and liked to party. He didn’t really know how to dance, and no one could then see in him a person who had to change the dance world. At that time, a simple funky chicken dance was in vogue and Don, coming to the club, tried to repeat the movements of experienced dancers. By the way, he didn’t do very well, at times he simply “fell out” of the dance, freezing, trying to figure out what movement he should do next. Friends watching him liked these stops very much and suggested using them on purpose! This is how "locking" or "campbellocking" appeared. It was a dance based on improvisation, a bright and energetic image of a dancer, an abundance of tricks, power elements, sweeping arm movements, and, of course, a rhythmic stop - “lock”. Lock means lock. That is, the movement seemed to be locked, as if “holding” the sound and interrupting the dance, which continued again after a moment.
The lockers were also strongly distinguished by their clothes. These were some breathtakingly large hats, striped spats, crosswise suspenders, shoes with buckles - then in their environment it was considered extremely fashionable and stylish. A bright image was seasoned with humor and interaction with the audience. At first, the dancers themselves did not take this seriously. They just lived in the created image, had fun, went to parties, discos or just danced at home. Everything changed after they were invited to perform on the TV show Soul Train. By and large, this is where it all started.
Soul Train is one of the longest-running musical entertainment projects on American television. This program was dedicated to music and dance. Over the years, the TV show "Soul Train" has become one of the most popular programs in the United States, and for African Americans - the number one show in general.
And it was for him that in 1971 dancers were required to show something new, representing "black America", and, moreover, unusual and bright. Don Campbell and his friends turned out to be such dancers. After that, the whole country learned about locking. Then Don Campbell gathers the team "The Lockers", which includes the best dancers and improvisers. For the next six years, they actively tour, working with Bill Cosby, Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra. They also do not forget to develop the style and teach it to people.
The Lockers became the first professional band to make a living from street dancing. Their example inspired many dancers across America. In the formation of locking as a dance style with a strictly defined technique, in addition to Don Campbell, Jimmy Foster, Greg Pope, James Higgins, Fred Berry, Tony Lewis and some others took part. It is the presence of a clear basic vocabulary that allows us to call locking the first street dance style.
In addition to the dance-music show "Soul Train", shows such as "Lost in Space" were very popular in the sixties, in which mime actors played robots.
They inspired many black teenagers to start copying the movements, trying to convey mechanicalness in the dance. So in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento and some other cities on the west coast, unique dance styles based on the aesthetics of robot movement were formed.
Sam Solomon was one of the teenagers who was influenced by programs about robots and locking. It was the style of the robot and locking, sunk into his soul, that made it possible to create a new dance known as popping. This was facilitated by the appearance in the music of the flow of pi funk (p-funk). A distinctive feature of this direction is a drier sound and a dedicated strong beat. Sam danced using robotic movements, which he "fringed" with muscle fixation to the beat of the music. At the same time, every time he was stressed, he quietly pronounced “dad”, which gave the name to the style - popping.
It turned out to be a kind of dancing robot. As already mentioned, there were quite a few people on the west coast doing something similar, but Sam was the first to be able to clearly form a set of basic movements and principles in dance, popularizing this trend. It happened at 1974 year. Two years later, having synthesized the movements of popping and boogaloo dance (one of the sub-styles in free Latin American dances), Sam creates a signature style of "electric boogaloo". He names his team identically, which includes several friends besides him and his brother Pete. "Electric Boogaloos" (Electric Boogaloos) are still the hallmark of the popping style. They are innovators and developers of original dance techniques and concepts such as "sker crow", "crazy legs" and many others. Like the Lockers, Electric Bugaluz got on the TV show Soul Train at 1979 and 1980. And again, the magic of television is doing its job, they will learn about popping in other cities of America, including New York.
There is some confusion about the term "papping". In one case, it is used as a designation for the style of popping itself, in another, as a general term for all similar manners, such as anime, wave, tatting, and others. The term pop-locking is also sometimes used in Los Angeles, generalizing the same popping and other related styles. Beginning in the 2000s, Electric Boogaloos began to promote their term "Funk Styles" to summarize popping, locking, and other related techniques that originated on the West Coast during the funk era. All this creates confusion not only among ordinary people, but even worse, among the dancers themselves. Therefore, perhaps in the future we will see a clearer classification, which will be recognized by all the leading dancers of this direction.
b) New York
Now let's turn our eyes to another center of American culture, namely New York.
To understand what happened in the early seventies, one has to go back to 1929. It was then that the New York Regional Planning Association was developing a project for the future city, according to which Manhattan began to be positioned as a center of wealth and luxury, and it was decided to build a railroad to bring labor from the suburbs. After the Second World War, this project began to be actively implemented. Against common sense, they decided to lay the railroad through the residential areas of the Bronx, where at that time lived Italians, Irish and Jews. Sixty thousand residents in one day found out that they were obliged to move out, having received meager compensation for this. On the other hand, there was a virtual forced relocation of poor African and Spanish families from Manhattan to the Bronx and East Brooklyn. Of course, tensions grew between those who had not yet left and the newcomers. "People without a future" formed large gangs, with bitter conflict with each other.
The situation was greatly fueled by the fact that factories and factories were gradually closing in the Bronx, unemployment was growing, and many had to live on welfare. The so-called "slumlords" took advantage of the situation - criminal businessmen who specialize in setting fire to their own buildings in order to obtain insurance. The government classified these fires as deliberate and actually stopped putting them out. As a result, whole neighborhoods burned out. More than forty thousand houses ceased to exist! As a result, by the beginning of the seventies, the Bronx area of \u200b\u200bNew York was a slum inhabited by desperate people, many of whom had lost hope of changing their situation. Drug trafficking and prostitution flourished. Numerous gangs were at war with each other, shooting in the street was a fairly common occurrence.
There were few positive things in the life of the inhabitants of the Bronx, one of them was discos.
Then even the first "DJs" held parties in parks, schools or community centers. In 1972-73. the events that the young Jamaican boy Africa Bambaata did with his friends Kool Herk and Grandmaster Flash especially began to stand out. They played all funky and disco music, experimenting with innovative ideas. For example, Kool Herc was the first to start playing non-stop music, having learned to “mix” records. The local youth were delighted and flocked to their parties. DJs set the so-called "breaks" - in jazz and funk, these are musical fragments without words between verses, often with an abundance of percussive rhythms, sometimes lasting for ten minutes. Then the crowd parted, forming a circle, releasing the dancers into it. Black teenagers showed everything they were capable of, using elements made on the floor in the dance. A little later Kool Herk comes up with a special name for them - “b-boy”, deciphering it as “break-boy”, but the dance itself became known as b-boying or, later, breaking.
Breaking, which was also based on social dancing, was a mix of rocking, imitations of James Brown, tap dance movements and other directions.
By 1974, the social movement led by Afrika Bambaata finally formed and received the name "Zulu Nation", and the culture that he brought to the masses became known as "hip-hop". This was a collection of four adjacent subcultures that went next to each other. In addition to DJing and b-boying, it includes graffiti (the art of urban wall painting) and MS'ing (read as "emsiing" from MC - master of ceremony) - the ability to conduct an event, performing approximately the same role as an entertainer in variety concerts, while reciting free improvisational recitatives over the music put on by the DJ. It should be noted one feature that singled out hip-hop, giving it that positive connotation that the inhabitants of the ghetto needed so much. In those years, hip-hop called for peace, creativity and love. Everyone could find self-expression in it.
His popularity and influence grew steadily. Under the influence of hip-hop, real changes began to occur. Afrika Bambaata called for solving problems not with street fights between gangs, but with dance fights on hardboard! It was new and it worked! It cannot be said that the traditional showdowns have disappeared, however, some of the violence has been transformed into a healthy spirit of rivalry. Dance groups appeared everywhere - crew. The most famous are Rock Steady Crew, New York City Breakers, Dynamic Rockers, Increadible Breakers.
There are three stages in the development of b-boying in the 70s and 80s. The first is the "early seventies". Then, rocking and footwork were mainly danced, and the basic elements were significantly different from modern ones. The next stage is the “middle seventies”. If in the beginning b-boying was danced mainly by African Americans who appreciated funk, now immigrants from Latin America joined the movement, whose dance culture was based on salsa, hustle and uprocking.
Such a merger had a fruitful effect on the development of b-boying. There are many new movements, such as swipes, six step, baby freeze. Today it is with these elements that training in b-boying schools begins. The third period is the “power move era”. It belongs to the early 80s.
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How "foreign" dances penetrated the USSR
05/30/2016 at 13:23
, youth fled to the park to the dance floors.
And few people thought that dancing was an event where fashion, morality and politics directly collided...22 years old called dances one of the channels for the penetration of petty-bourgeois influence into the youth environment. From a brochure by V. Zamoskvoretsky in 1924: “We do not indiscriminately deny all dances, but only point out the harmfulness of modern bourgeois, reflecting sexual moments in all forms (such as tango). We accept dances where there is an element of creativity, such as the Caucasian lezginka, the Russian squatting and the Ukrainian hopak.
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At the end of the NEP, a propaganda campaign against the foxtrot was launched in the USSR. An article “A new kind of pornography. Foxtrot dance. The author called dance a sexual pathology. Komsomol newspapers attacked the foxtrot with criticism. The result was a ban on this dance in the USSR.
Although they struggled not only with the foxtrot, but also with the Charleston, tango, but… dancing lived on. They were danced by both old and young - to the sounds of the orchestra, in the club and at home. No one understood what came from where, they danced, and that's it! Already in the early 1930s, cultural orientations were changed. Foxtrots, Charlestons and tangos became legal. Spontaneous dance floors were legalized, they were surrounded by fences, stages were equipped, and ... it started.
Rock and roll and foxtrot conquered the dance floors
They danced even in the war! The performances of the propaganda teams that came to the front line also always ended with dancing.
One of the phenomena of the post-war Soviet dance floors until some time were female couples. The girls danced with each other. This was a consequence of the recent war, which wiped out a huge part of the male population of the country.
The sound source is the same gramophone and 78 rpm records. The names of Leshchenko, Kozin, Sokolsky, Vertinsky are prohibited. But Utyosov is allowed, but his “thieves” songs are also prohibited: “Two urkans fled from the Odessa kichman”, “Gop with a close - it will be me” ...
In the second half of the 1950s, along with tight trousers and women's short bell skirts came to the USSR boogie-woogie dance. Official authorities immediately called him a conductor of "corrupting influence" on young people. The improvisation characteristic of this dance especially alerted the authorities ...
The next stage of the fight against Western dances took place in the 60s. The reason for the hatred of official power was rock and roll! And with him, dudes came to the USSR, the hallmark of which the authorities considered not only a special style of clothing, but also a manner of moving, above all, dancing.
Soviet newspapers, branding dudes, wrote: "The main thing in their" style "is not to look like ordinary people." And yet the dance won over the politicians. The moment has come when the ideologists have given up. Rock and roll and foxtrot conquered the dance floors.
Alien twist dance
In the 1960s, the twist became widespread in many countries. In the USSR, the twist took root with difficulty. He was too alien to the ideological attitudes of that time.
However, twist lovers did not despair, they, gathering at underground parties and even at legal dance floors, disguised the forbidden dance to the melody of the composer Yuri Saulsky "The Black Cat". In 1964, after Nikita Khrushchev was removed from power, the twist quickly conquered all Soviet dance floors.
In the 1970s in the USSR, a transition began to a mass action called “disco”: a musical roar where you can’t make out the melodies behind decibels. And yet, young people loved discotheques.
