How to dance like elvis
Elvis Presley Dance Moves Controversy, Explained
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Rock 'n' roll returns to the big screen.
On June 24, Baz Luhrmann officially released his long-awaited and highly-anticipated musical drama, Elvis. The acclaimed biopic chronicles the life and career of the titular singer and actor, commonly known to be the "King of Rock and Roll."
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As expected, the film — which stars Austin Butler as Elvis Presley — includes various performances and highlights much of the "Love Me Tender" singer's show-stopping dance moves that left crowds of women screaming at the top of their lungs.
Now, back in the day, many found Elvis's dance moves to be controversial, so much so that he was nearly arrested for his signature moves. Keep reading for all the known details.
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Elvis Presley faced controversy over his iconic dance moves.
Since mainstream culture was still conservative in the 1950s, Elvis and his iconic dance moves were considered vulgar; nevertheless, teen girls couldn't get enough of his trademark hip-swiveling and leg-shaking.
Now, the most controversial moment in Elvis's career comes from his June 1956 performance on The Milton Berle Show. While singing "Hound Dog," Elvis displayed his provocative side through the pelvis-shaking moves that left his fanbase in shambles.
Following the show, television critics nationwide slammed his performance and deemed Elvis untalented. PBS reported that critics also bashed the arrangement for its "appalling lack of musicality," as well as for its "vulgarity" and "animalism."
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The Catholic Church also criticized Elvis, publishing a piece titled "Beware Elvis Presley.
"
According to PBS, the text argued the "Jailhouse Rock" vocalist heightened people's fears and concerns regarding juvenile delinquency and the transformation of moral values in the younger generation.
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In 1956, Elvis spoke with TV Guide about his dance moves and revealed his hatred for the nickname "Elvis the Pelvis."
"I don’t roll my — what they call 'pelvic gyrations' — my pelvis has nothing to do with what I do," Elvis told the outlet. "I just — I get rhythm with the music. I jump around to it because I enjoy what I’m doing."
He added, "I’m not trying to be vulgar, not trying to [simulate] sex. I just do a lot of wigglin’ and quiverin’, but I never do a bump or grind. I can’t sit still when I sing, so the kids can’t sit still."
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Sadly, it seemed no one cared about what Elvis had to say; his crowd-pleasing yet unchoreographed dance moves remained controversial, with many finding them instinctual and suggestive.
These complaints made their way to multiple variety shows, with Ed Sullivan's CBS show only filming the singer's performances from the waist up.
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Better yet, Elvis's July 1956 appearance on The Steve Allen Show featured a performance where mocked he his image with formal clothes and sang "Hound Dog" to an actual basset hound; this was to ensure the entire family could tune in to the show.
Wow, talk about degrading!
However, nothing is worse than the time Elvis nearly got arrested for his questionable dance moves.
A judge threatened to arrest Elvis for his provocative on-stage presence.
In 1997, Elvis's girlfriend June Juanico published a book entitled Elvis: In the Twilight of Memory.
In the novel, June recalls the time a Florida judge threatened to arrest the "Suspicious Minds" singer in 1956 for his dance moves, adding that their friend Buddy Conrad found out a local newspaper in Jacksonville published a piece about Elvis's dancing.
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"It says here that a Judge Gooding, a Juvenile Court judge, said that he felt Elvis's bumps and grinds were objectionable for the teenage audience, and he ordered Elvis to tone down his act," Buddy said, according to June.
"Warrants were made out in advance for Elvis's arrest. The police were there to watch for any little wiggle, and vowed to arrest him if he made one wrong move. They were even filming the show for proof."
Thankfully, Elvis was never arrested for his dance moves.
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【How to】 Dance Like Elvis Presley
okay it's actually kind of 1960 almost
uh with the two feet and then once you
get really comfortable with that just
lift up one leg
and do one foot and once you lift up one
leg
you really need to put a lot of your hip
movement into it
to get across the floor so once you get
really comfortable just going like this
i want you to watch your hip movement
and when this foot goes out
this foot goes out see it's pointing
outwards this foot
is going to touch your toes going to
touch across then when it comes back
like that your toe's going to touch over
here
so let's do it really slow touch there
this foot slides it does a little
shuffle and it touches over here
this foot switches and you go across
again
this foot switches make sure you put a
lot of hip movement into this
to be able to get across the floor or
you're gonna go like this
okay now before you even worry about any
kind of arm movement
that right there is ninety percent of
the battle so get real good and
comfortable
going like this across the floor
do it at work when you're on your break
stand in your office and go like this
okay now if you are a fan of other
elvish tribute artists you're gonna see
that almost all of them do it
differently than elvis truly did it
there are very few who actually do it
authentically
um i can't even remember who taught me
this move but it was at an elvis
festival and
some other eta was teaching me how to do
the window because i was having trouble
with it
and he told me to do a little anchor
with my elbow like this against my body
and if you watch elvis elvis didn't
actually do that
he did something similar to it on other
moves like in loving you when he slides
across the floor meanwhile
blues but he didn't actually do this
on the windmill but it did help me
mentally to put an anchor
right here in my arm so when you're
first starting out it is okay to do this
but once you get to the point where
you're where you got the move pretty
well
and you want to do it authentically just
put your arm out
it's really simple just hold this arm
out so
and let that arm swing across so once
you get real good and comfortable
just doing this
you're gonna bring in the swing
now the swing is going to go
clockwise or if somebody's watching you
it's going to be counterclockwise
i have the phone on the mirror setting
on the front camera right now
so it might come out reverse in the
video but i'm going
inwards you want your arm to follow
inwards to your face
not outwards so so when this foot goes
over
your arm is going to be up and when this
foot
goes this way your arm's going to be
down
then it's going to swing all the way
around clockwise
so this is the two positions you're
really hitting it's just a matter
of getting there so let's do this a
little bit slowly i'm going to put it
all together
and then i'm going to speed it up and
try to help you guys
get there
again
i hope you found this video informative
today i hope you liked it if this video
gets a lot of views
i'll probably be doing more uh dance
tutorials for elvis
in the future now please subscribe to
the channel as
uh all you guys know my old youtube
channel got shut down
with 7 500 subscribers and a bunch of
other stuff we got to build back
so i'm not sure how this video is going
to do because this is actually my first
new video i'm shooting for the new
channel everything else was just stuff
that i had in storage waiting to be
uploaded on the old one
so i hope you liked this video give it a
thumbs up give it a comment
please subscribe below i really need the
subscribers so please hit the subscribe
button
thank you all so much for watching tcp
Everyone dances rock and roll - Style - Kommersant
On April 13, the whole world celebrates the birthday of rock and roll - a musical direction associated with the time of rebellion and frenzied dancing.
However, the historic event that marked the beginning of both this holiday and rock and roll culture in general occurred the day before. On April 12, 1954, American musician Bill Haley recorded the song "Rock Around The Clock", which became the first rock and roll hit and the anthem of an entire generation. "Kommersant Style" has compiled a selection of films where the most incendiary rock and roll is danced.
Photo: Getty Images
Prison Rock 'n' Roll
The third film by the king of rock and roll Elvis Presley is an absolute classic of both rock and roll culture and cinema. The protagonist of the film - the inveterate bully Vinson, performed by Elvis Presley, discovers his musical talent, perhaps in the most unexpected place for this - prison. It is there that he meets a friend and mentor, country music expert Hank Haughton, who will make the young man believe in his talent.
The picture got its name in honor of the main soundtrack performed by Presley himself "Jailhouse Rock". The composition, which later became the hallmark of the singer, sounds especially bright in this film thanks to the incendiary dance. Against the backdrop of the prison scenery, Elvis Presley and other prisoners dance rock and roll so energetically and contagiously that you immediately want to move to the beat with them. By the way, Elvis Presley invented the whole dance himself. The hit "Jailhouse Rock" would later be ranked 67th on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and the film's music number would be named one of the best examples of the first music video.
"Grease"
The incredible plasticity of John Travolta, who has been dancing since the age of eight, is known to his fans from many films, but the musical film "Grease" brought the first fame and popularity to the actor, where Travolta dances and sings a lot.
The premiere of a film about the life of high school students in the 1950s was accompanied by mass hysteria among the female part of the audience. They even began to talk about such a phenomenon as “travoltomania”. And all because of the young and charming John Travolta, who so harmoniously got used to the image of a high school rebel. At the same time, the style of the actors greatly influenced youth fashion 19In the 1970s, the characters' lines entered colloquial English, and the musical numbers from the film became part of the history of musical cinema. One "boyish" dance in a car repair shop to the song "Greased Lightning" is worth something.
Back to the Future
The most famous scene of the cult film is the performance of the protagonist Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) at the school prom. Here he performs the song "Johnny B.
Goode" by Chuck Berry, to which ladies in puffy skirts and young men with high hairstyles famously dance in the school gym. Filming for the guitar solo took two weeks because the director wanted to make the sequence as believable as possible. According to the plot, during the performance of the protagonist, his bandmate Marvin Berry calls his cousin Chuck Berry and lets him listen to this song through the phone. As planned by the director, Berry allegedly overheard his hit through a telephone. In fact, Chuck Berry never had a cousin named Martin.
Cry-Baby
According to director John Waters, the film was meant to be a parody of musical youth films of the 1950s. Johnny Depp, who is very young here, plays a rebel and a handsome man, capable of melting dozens of girlish hearts during his rock and roll performances, letting out only one tear at the end of the song.
But at the same time, he himself falls in love with only one - the diligent girl Allison, who belongs to the clan of the rich and conservatives. The story of Romeo and Juliet of the 50s unfolds against the backdrop of dance and rock and roll. One of the highlights was the performance of Crybaby with the song "King Cry-Baby", under which no one in the auditorium can remain calm.
Stilyagi
As you know, in the USSR in the 1950s, rock and roll was banned as a Western culture that promoted a way of life unsuitable for a Soviet person. About this difficult confrontation, director Valery Todorovsky shot his film "Stilyagi". And although the true rock and roll culture has passed Russia by, in "Stilyagi" there were a lot of things that the domestic audience liked. Bright outfits, unusual hairstyles, incendiary dances to the cult melodies of the 80s in rock and roll processing.
Use American songs 1930-1950, which the "dudes" themselves listened to in the Russian film, Todorovsky considered ridiculous. Therefore, the authors of the film opted for "Russian rock" in a new arrangement. Almost every song corresponds to a dance - boogie-woogie, blues or rock and roll, such as, for example, "My little Babe" performed by the hero Maxim Matveev.
Julia Akhmedova
From a small group of like-minded people to a large Moscow school
Rockabilly jive: a social dance for those who love Elvis, bright outfits and style of the 50s
The phrase "social dancing" is associated with many people with bachata and salsa. Not everyone knows that rockabilly jive also belongs to social dances - a style that is not at all like Latin American dances, but it can also be danced with any partner and with any physical fitness, if you know the basic dance base. "Plyas" met with Antonina Neyaglova #nbsp - a teacher of the first rockabilly jive school in Russia "Moscow Dancing Rebels" - and found out where in Moscow they dance like Elvis, who today prefers to dress in the style of the 50s and how much training is needed to start boldly get out on the dance floor.
July 20 2020
from a small company of like -minded people to a large Moscow school
from a small company of like -minded people to a large Moscow school - your school
– Last year we celebrated 13 years of school, but in fact it all started back in the 90s. The founder of the school, Max Makarov, then gathered a small company that just wanted to dance to rock and roll music. The guys went to different clubs in Moscow and tried to dance - first, whoever is in what much, then in pairs. In those years, there was no Internet, no schools, and the guys danced, just trying to repeat the movements that they once saw somewhere in fits and starts. As Maxim recalls in one of the videos about the school:
“
At first we didn't know much and danced on a whim.
And when they began to study dance materials, they realized that all this time they were dancing complete nonsense
Gradually the party grew, the school moved from one room to another, and in 2013 the Moscow Dancing Rebels school finally settled in the 9 halls studio at Chistye Prudy.
Day of Russia on Novy Arbat. Photo by Alena Valiano
Style history
Style history
– What is rockabilly jive?
- This style appeared in the 50s in the wake of the popularity of rock and roll - Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis. Rockabilly jive is based on the dances of the 30s and 40s, but if dancing its sister lindy hop required very good physical preparation, then anyone could dance rockabilly jive. It was mostly danced by white youth, and due to her upbringing and strong social segregation, she could not use the complex and sometimes frank acrobatic dance elements that African-American Lindy Hop dancers could afford.
But the guys wanted to dance, so they gradually removed the acrobatics and complex lifts from the pair dances of the 30s and 40s, and as a result, rockabilly jive appeared.
“
In those days, this dance could often be danced by two girls in a pair, because after the Second World War there were few men
any partner or partner, without having a professional choreographic education. The pair has a master and a slave. The leader - most often this is a partner - sets signals: visual and tactile, and the partner must understand what she should do in response. Knowing this base, anyone can dance rockabilly jive.
– Is this dance related to the jive of the Latin American ballroom dance program?
- No, these dances have different rhythm and footwork, and then ballroom jive is a sport, but we still have a social dance.
– Are there rockabilly jive tournaments?
- No, because this dance has no criteria for professionalism. Rockabilly jive is not part of any dance federation and is not a sports or professional dance discipline, everything is exclusively at the amateur level.
– Who comes to your school?
– A variety of people come to us, we have no age or any other restrictions, neither weight, nor training, nor social status plays a role for us. The main thing we would like to see in the eyes of our students is the desire to learn how to dance rockabilly jive. Children do not go simply because they are not interested and incomprehensible to this style, but there are young people and schoolchildren aged 16-17. Most of our students are 25-35 years old, a lot of those over 50-60 are the most conscious and interested students. As in many dance schools, ladies are in the majority, so 3-6 girls in a group are without partners.
Training at Moscow Dancing Rebels. Photo from the group of the school in VKontakte
– How much training is required to reach the level of free dancing with different partners? – Training in each of the three groups lasts at least six months, so six months after the start of training, you can already try yourself on the dance floor.
– Are the students at your school trying to follow the canons of the rockabilly style?
- In fact, we can say that we have not so much a school as an interest club. Most often people come who are interested in the culture of that era.
“
Among our students, many in their lives dress in the style of 50-
They make hairstyles from the 40-50s, for example, notorious to many Victori Rols (Victory Rolls) and prefer clothes of that period: trousers, shirts and dresses of a certain cut, sun skirts and sheath dresses, jeans with characteristic folds, for many men a cap is an obligatory attribute.
If people are interested in the style of the 50s, then they need to know certain historical moments, the culture of behavior and the psychology of people of that time, otherwise they will not understand this culture. In this regard, in addition to dance lessons, our school also conducts lectures and master classes on styles from different eras of the 20th century. But in general, we have a very democratic environment, and everyone can dress as he likes.
Wedding parties
weekly Parties
- How are Rokabilly Parties in Moscow? – Rockabilly concerts are held almost every week in the capital, there are quite a lot of them, many of them have been working for more than 20 years. Alligators, The Spootniks (St. Petersburg rockabilly band), The Betty Boop Lovers, RawCats88 and many others.
Two hours of training per week is very little, so we encourage all of our students to go to these parties and dance.
Most people come to parties alone and already on the spot get to know each other, communicate, get into separate companies. Pair dance is an exchange of energy, you give to your partner, he returns to you, and it charges you for the whole week. People don't swear, they don't argue, they just dance and get high. In addition, in addition to dancing, we also have romance, and many families have formed at the school.
Our school holds street parties in the summer on Novy Arbat. We arrange them on the territory of the friendly bar "The Dacha". We used to do them a lot last summer and they were very popular. We also often gather on the embankment in the MUZEON art park. And we can also just go out into the streets of Moscow, put on a column and start dancing, people like it, they are interested and join.
Moscow Dancing Rebels school events.
Photo from the school's VKontakte group
– Are there times when someone doesn't want to dance with someone? What to do in this case?
– Of course there are, no one can please everyone, and I was denied the dance, and so am I. There is also a certain culture, and if the dance floor is already full at some point, and some partner is dragging you, then you simply have to refuse, because you have to respect the people who are already on the dance floor. There are times when a partner or a partner does not respect you in the dance and wants to “dance yourself”: here I know a bunch of movements from different dances, I can do salsa, hustle, boogie-woogie, and acrobatics with you without agreement!
“
And now he throws you like a kitten on the dance floor, breaks your arms!
Well, of course, you take and leave such a partner if you love and respect yourself, and you try not to contact such people anymore.
There are also stellar arrogant ladies who show with all their appearance that every partner should be happy if she does such a favor and dances with him. Such individuals, most likely, will also be gently refused. Situations are very different, and you need to react to everything calmly, firmly understanding that you have the right to refuse and you yourself will calmly endure the refusal.
– Were there scandals?
– No, our party is very friendly, there have never been any serious conflicts, and those who try to get rowdy, our boys will always very correctly take aside and, if something happens, they will stand up for the girls.
Rocabilly-jave festivals-in Moscow and the world
Rocabilly-Dyiv festivals-in Moscow and World
– Does your school have festivals?
- For the last 5 years in spring and autumn we have been organizing a street festival "First rays of summer".
This 50s-style festival takes place on the grounds of two biker bars, the Honky Tonk Road House and the Night Train Saloon. In addition to the dance floor, we arrange a garage sale, hold contests and master classes, and invite musical groups. We have created a mini-fest in the image of festivals in Europe and America. There they are larger and often last at least 4 days. Unfortunately, we do not yet have the opportunity to hold festivals of this level. But then we ourselves go to European and American festivals. In 2015, for example, our school participated in the Spanish festival "Screamin' Festival", and then in the internal competition of the festival, our school took all 3 places! It was amazing. We have been going there for many years, there is a wonderful atmosphere, people from all over the world come here. The festival takes place right on the beach, in a place not far from Barcelona.
Popularity Rokabilly Jayva Today
Popularity Rocabilly Jayva Today
- How does the popularity and interest of the public in this style change?
- It has been growing in recent years.
Maybe now there is no longer such an old-school direction as it was before, when everyone was in style and clearly knew what they were listening to and how it appeared. Today, young people just like the party itself, bright outfits. Rockabilly music - a mixture of rock and roll, country and hillbilly music - is still popular and interested in people of all ages.
Every country has its own rockabilly jive schools. Two years ago, Italian colleagues came to us to learn bop dance. Last year, future instructors came from Finland, who also open their own rockabilly jive school, they were interested in our experience. Our former students recently opened a school in Tallinn. There are two schools in Moscow - ours and "Jiving rockets", they appeared a little later. Recently, the school "Jiving cats" was opened in St. Petersburg. As for other cities in Russia, as far as I know, the movement is not yet so popular.
“
Sometimes people write to us from Krasnodar, Sochi, Tyumen and other cities who cannot find anything similar in their country and ask to organize the same school in their city
So far we have only 5 instructors and we only have enough for Moscow.
But we hope that the popularity of this style will rise, and in a few years we will be able to take root in other cities of Russia.
– Did the film "Dandies" influence the popularity of your school?
– A wave of dudes really made us a big advertisement, after it a flood of people poured into our school. But we are not dudes! For us, it's such a poppy version because it's not the true 50's style. The film is good, and it depicts beautiful exaggerated images, but in reality it was not like that. By the way, our school is often invited to big city holidays, and at one of the celebrations of the City Day, when each venue presented a certain film, we presented the film "Stilyagi". We know how to organize bright rock and roll events, for this we are appreciated by the organizers of big holidays.
From go-go to dances of the 50s
From go-go to dances of the 50s
– Antonina is one of the instructors at the school today.
How did you get into rockabilly?
– I met Maxim at school, he was my history teacher. 10 years after graduation, we continued to communicate, and then my gradual acquaintance with this style began. During the year, Max took me to various events in the style of rock and roll and rockabilly, and when the guys danced, I really liked it, but it seemed that it was terribly difficult, I looked at it all with huge enthusiastic eyes. For a whole year I was only an observer, and as a result, in 2011, I came to school and began to study. At first it was difficult, but I am a fiery person, and if it doesn’t work right away, then it’s not necessary at all! And right away, of course, it didn’t work out, I had to teach, and cry, and study the history of this culture, and learn how to make a complex Victory Rolls hairstyle. But slowly I overcame my fears and doubts and now I myself have been teaching this dance for many years. And so, before rockabilly jive, I danced go-go in clubs for several years.
