By Fred Chun, Waipio
Latin dance styles have always exerted a huge influence on the direction of western popular music and this was especially true of jazz. This was profoundly altered by the advent of the first wave of Latin music in the 1940s and then by the bossa nova craze of the 1960s, which also had a massive influence on American pop music. In Wahiawa, they have had Mariachis lately, so that may be all a matter of time. From the 1950s to the 1980s, new dance fads appeared almost every week.
Many were popularized (or commercialized) versions of new styles or movements discovered by the young American dancers who frequented the clubs and discotheques in major U.S. cities like New York, Philadelphia and Detroit. Among the dozens of crazes that swept the world during this fertile period were the Madison, "The Swim", the "Mashed Potato", "The Twist", "The Frug" (pronounced 'froog') and "The Watusi", "The Shake" and "The Hitchhike"; several '60s dance crazes had animal names, including "The Pony", "The Dog" and "The Chicken" (not to be confused with the later Chicken Dance)
From the beginning, the dances of the natives of Latin America put emphasis on the movement of the dancer’s body and not the feet. The rumba tune was considered to be less significant than the intricate cross rhythms offered by a striking of bottles, spoons and pots and in the 20th century, card board boxes. But in the US, the music and the dancing mixed very slowly in with the European more than the African.
Latin dance styles have always exerted a huge influence on the direction of western popular music and this was especially true of jazz. This was profoundly altered by the advent of the first wave of Latin music in the 1940s and then by the bossa nova craze of the 1960s, which also had a massive influence on American pop music. In Wahiawa, they have had Mariachis lately, so that may be all a matter of time. From the 1950s to the 1980s, new dance fads appeared almost every week.
"Social dancers know that being technically perfect isn’t good enough. They need to know
why they dance - to be connected - to be inspired by friends.”
Many were popularized (or commercialized) versions of new styles or movements discovered by the young American dancers who frequented the clubs and discotheques in major U.S. cities like New York, Philadelphia and Detroit. Among the dozens of crazes that swept the world during this fertile period were the Madison, "The Swim", the "Mashed Potato", "The Twist", "The Frug" (pronounced 'froog') and "The Watusi", "The Shake" and "The Hitchhike"; several '60s dance crazes had animal names, including "The Pony", "The Dog" and "The Chicken" (not to be confused with the later Chicken Dance)
"Always Be My Baby" by Mariah Carey (1996)
From the beginning, the dances of the natives of Latin America put emphasis on the movement of the dancer’s body and not the feet. The rumba tune was considered to be less significant than the intricate cross rhythms offered by a striking of bottles, spoons and pots and in the 20th century, card board boxes. But in the US, the music and the dancing mixed very slowly in with the European more than the African.
"Many social dancers have learned from life that a foot of happiness
may lie just ahead of every inch of sadness."
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