The "big kids" also had a dance called "The Jerk." It was an early-early predecessor to gothic-punk stiff dancing. There's very little in this world that's truly new. Grown-ups were less worried about the Jerk than the Twist, possibly because the musicians who promoted the Jerk were white, while Chubby Checkers, father of the Twist, was not.
Since that time, I've seen a lot of dances rise and fall. Probably the best of all of them was the double-bump. It required a good sense of rhythm, was intrinsically interactive, and yet allowed for a lot of creative self-expression. Watching people do it was a pleasure, and unlike other dances like break and hip-hop, you didn't have to be an olympic athlete to learn it. I was just getting the hang of the thing when it fell from popularity.
The funniest dance in the last thirty years was called "The Wriggle." Imagine this scene: You're in a bar. People are dancing, getting loose, having a basic good time. Suddenly certain music comes up and someone calls out "The Wriggle." Everybody gets down on their belly and starts writhing around. Pretty weird.
There are other forms of dance besides those intended for sheer recreation. Gurdjeif, for instance, in his book "Meetings With Remarkable Men," tells of his long search for a legendary Buddhist monastery in the mountains of Nepal. He finally finds the place, and discovers that the monks of this monastery have perfected a movement form, a dance style that elevates the spirit from the physical plane. Gurdjeif studied at this monastery, and then brought the dances to the west. His travelling group of dancers performed in concert halls in major European and American cities in the 1930's, including New York's Carnegie Hall.
And nowadays? Today, in the nineties? The best we seem to be able to do is the "Macarena."
I witnessed this Macarena last week. I'd never seen it before, except on an incredibly lame TV commercial. Of all the dances I've ever seen or practiced, this has got to be the most boring. No lower-body rhythm to serve as counterpoint to the upper-body motions. No interaction. No substance at all. Kind of like the rest of our society these days.
The diminishment of our ability to dance is a troublesome thing. Dance is perhaps the oldest, most primal of all social customs. It's one of the few unifying characteristics inherent in all cultures, an unbridled acknowledgement of the physical self, the pure celebration of life in motion. A society which loses the ability to dance is an impoverished society indeed.
Oh I know there's still lots of dance options left. One can contra-dance, one can classical-dance, one can even line-dance (spare me!). But these are all established forms, "traditional dances." A culture's current dance form reflects the ambient state of that culture. If the best thing we can come up with is the "Macarena," we're in trouble.
Of course, you've all heard me say before that our society is in trouble. This time I really mean it. So go out there, damn it, and shake your booty. Let your upper body dance with the guitarist, and let your lower body dance with the bass and percussion. Let your spirit dance with the singer. Close your eyes. Forget about your life, your troubles, your thoughts. Disappear into the movement. Tune in. Let the world dance through you.
Become the music.