Last night, while lying on my couch, prostrate from the heat, I watched Beach Party, the first Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello beach movie. The movie is high camp and very entertaining. I caught the beginning where Dick Dale and the Del Tones are jamming at a beach joint, and everybody is dancing. Perhaps it was the heat, but I was transfixed by the dancing. The movie came out in 1963, well before the Beatles flew into JFK Airport, but a couple of years after Chubby Checker released his hit song, "The Twist". I make this distinction because the cats and chicks in this flick are twisting it up.
The Twist is probably the most simple dance move you can do. Here's a quotation from a member of Checker's band—I got off of Wikipedia, so it's who knows of its veracity—but it captures the dance perfectly: "It's like putting out a cigarette with both feet, and wiping your bottom with a towel, to the beat of the music." It also resembles convulsions, at least in Beach Party it does. Now days, it's a dance that no one consciously does, but there are some moves that still are around. In the movie, a girl with tight slacks shakes her booty so quickly, that I was reminded of hip hop videos in which women with generous backsides shake it like an earthquake (girthquake?). Check out the dance scene in the second to the last panel of Moving Pictures on your left.
When I played in a cover band in the late eighties, we would whip out “Twist & Shout”, and that always brought people out on the dance floor. We played to mostly white crowds and The Twist is so basic that drunk white people have no trouble getting up with the get down. I think it is because they never have to move their feet. All they have to do is shimmy from side to side. With booze, the shimming becomes a lot less self-conscious. I'm not making of fun of those people; I'm no great dancer, although I do like to dance. I'm sure our contemporary dance movies will look ridiculous in 40 years, but in the end, dancing is about connecting with music in a physical way, so who gives a rat’s ass what you look like?
The Twist is probably the most simple dance move you can do. Here's a quotation from a member of Checker's band—I got off of Wikipedia, so it's who knows of its veracity—but it captures the dance perfectly: "It's like putting out a cigarette with both feet, and wiping your bottom with a towel, to the beat of the music." It also resembles convulsions, at least in Beach Party it does. Now days, it's a dance that no one consciously does, but there are some moves that still are around. In the movie, a girl with tight slacks shakes her booty so quickly, that I was reminded of hip hop videos in which women with generous backsides shake it like an earthquake (girthquake?). Check out the dance scene in the second to the last panel of Moving Pictures on your left.
When I played in a cover band in the late eighties, we would whip out “Twist & Shout”, and that always brought people out on the dance floor. We played to mostly white crowds and The Twist is so basic that drunk white people have no trouble getting up with the get down. I think it is because they never have to move their feet. All they have to do is shimmy from side to side. With booze, the shimming becomes a lot less self-conscious. I'm not making of fun of those people; I'm no great dancer, although I do like to dance. I'm sure our contemporary dance movies will look ridiculous in 40 years, but in the end, dancing is about connecting with music in a physical way, so who gives a rat’s ass what you look like?
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