Wednesday, January 23, 2013

No Nibbles

No one apparently wanted to try a guess on that Shindig dance.  Frankly, I am annoyed at you all for that.  It was related to the more sinuous Frug, which this video claims was the foundational movement for half of all 60's discotheque dances.



I also see some relationship to The Jerk.  The Frug was more popular in retrospect, because of films such as that above, and the fact that Broadway choreographer Bob Fosse just couldn't get enough of it.  It is less dramatic, more...uh... intimate, and doesn't play as well on stage from 100 feet, as the caged Hullabaloo Dancers' movements had to.  I'm guessing it's pretty impressive from 20 feet with those costumes.  Haven't been there myself, but...

BTW, that video is a little creepy, with its tables of four guys in suits and ties, clearly sharing a brotherly moment when they were supposed to be at Rotary or something, plus the young women making the request calls... Did that really happen, or is this a made-for-TV moment?  It feels darn close to a strip club, actually.  Not that I would know.

I almost put in another ellipsis there.  That may be a marker of high anxiety for me, not knowing quite how to put things, so I leave the thought with an ellipsis...

And cages.  I hadn't really picked up on that before.  It suddenly occurs to me that as a pubescent male, I thought the cages were to protect them from the ravenous fans, plus allow them to be moved around for staging purposes. But this was also the era of the many risque women-in-prison movies.  I feel another ellipsis coming on...

Those of you who are interested in recapturing your moves in preparation for the next wedding of you friends' children - or those who weren't there but want to get your 60's moves just right, the following series of videos is far-and-away the best I have seen.  Michael or Bethany, notify Tim, please. And someone pass it on to Jamie Zylak, who I imagine will use the information more than the rest of us.



There are 33 other dances at that YouTube sector.

2 comments:

Michael said...

I will bring this to Tim's attention. But excuse me for a minute, I need to get my 60's on!

Michael said...

I will bring this to Tim's attention. But excuse me for a minute, I need to get my 60's on!