September 21, 2018 • 40 mins
Why do we square dance in class? Where did Madonna learn to vogue? Did David Bowie actually inspire Michael Jackson's dance moves? And what does the Chicken Dance have to do with skiing? Will and Mango get to the bottom of the biggest dance mysteries.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
I guess what mango? What's that? Will? All right? So
we decided to do today's episode on different dances. I
started thinking back to all the dances that we learned
as kids, and all the songs where every kid in
school felt like they had to master the dance moves.
So when you think about this, what dance has come
to mind? So you know what strange is that I
was actually thinking about this recently, and obviously their moves
(00:24):
like the Roger rabbit or whatever, But I actually kind
of feel grateful that we grew up in this era
when there weren't a lot of great dances, and at
least when we were in middle school, Like, uh, all
the breakdancing and moonwalking was over by then, and then
all the songs seemed to be just about jumping, like
some pain was jump around criss cross, had that song
jumped like feel like dancing to Nirvana was just like
(00:46):
bouncing up and down and bumping into each other. And
it was totally right about this. I didn't think about
that so much easier than like watching what my kids
have to go through just to keep up with like
the shoot and the whip nene, and like practicing how
to floss all the time. Yeah, I mean, I get
what you're saying, But you know, a few others do
come to mind for me, and and probably to stand
out above the others, you know. The first of these
(01:08):
was definitely Michael Jackson's Thriller. And I know I've mentioned
this before, but my sister was a few years older
than me, and so when she was out with friends
or still at school, I would often sneak into her
room and listen to tapes on that fancy double cassette
boom box that she had, and you know, I might
pop in some Duran, Duran or the Bangles or any
number of other tapes that she had. But my favorite
(01:29):
was definitely Michael Jackson's Thriller. And I was terrible at
dancing to that song, but it didn't stop me from
trying to master it. But you know, the other dance
that comes to mind, and you might argue this one
was a little bit easier to master, that was the
electric slide. So I remember going into the school dance
in like sixth grade and suddenly everyone was doing the
(01:49):
electric slide and I couldn't figure out, like, had I
missed a class where this was taught because like everyone
knew how to do it well. It might have felt
like everybody mastered it. But my guess is the dances creator,
Richard Silver, he might not agree with that, you know,
especially if you weren't doing all twenty two proper steps
of the dance. Now this may seem a little bit silly,
(02:10):
but he was serious about this. So Silver was this
well known dancer in the New York City disco scene,
and he came up with the Electric Slide in nineteen
seventy six, and he was more than a little particular
about people doing it just right, especially because there was
this version of the dance that caught on that only
involved eighteen of the twenty two steps that he'd choreographed.
(02:32):
And he'd get so angry about people doing it wrong
that for years he would threaten to sue people who
were doing it incorrectly, and he even convinced YouTube to
take down several videos of like weddings and bar Mitzvah's
and other parties that involved people butchering his creation. Is
this not nuts, that's amazing. But he finally gave up
(02:53):
on trying to police the world on behalf of his
dance when this other civil rights organization. They actually sued
him on behalf of a man whose party clips had
been taken down from the web because of silver. But anyway,
this this bizarre incident got us thinking about the unusual
and often controversial origins of some of the most well
(03:13):
known dances in history. And that's what we're gonna be
talking about today. So let's dive in. Y Hey there,
(03:39):
podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
and as always I'm joined by my good friend man
gues Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof
glass practicing the steps for the official Arch Deluxe line dance.
That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, I have
to admit i'd never heard of this, but apparently this
dance was part of a McDonald's ad campaign back in
(04:00):
the mid nineties. Do you remember this Mango, Yeah, the
Arch Deluxe. It was a giant failure from what I remember. Yeah,
And I guess the company was trying to attract older
customers by introducing what they build as quote the burger
with the grown up taste, which is such a weird line.
And you're right, it sounds like nobody liked it. I
don't think the dance fared that much better either. But
(04:22):
Tristan actually dug up the steps on the old arch
Deluxe website, which you can apparently still access. And I
think everybody should do this because it's just as ridiculous
as you might imagine. I mean, listen to some of
these dance moves and they describe them in detail for you.
Here it says, right, arm rolls up and down twice
like the wave and a nocean. Then step forward and
(04:45):
form the golden arches with your arms. What what could
be cooler than doing these dance moves? But unsurprisingly this
did not catch on, and that's despite McDonald's bold claim
that quote people across America are mixed step and to
the beat of the newest dance craze. So I looked
into this and it seems like the whole idea was
(05:05):
meant as a way to capitalize on how popular the
Macarina was at the time, and the company went all
out to try and make this the next big thing.
And I've read that they actually shuttled a bunch of
employees to McDonald's headquarters for do the deluxe dance lessons.
And then there was a giant pep rally right there after,
and the village people attended and performed for some reason.
(05:26):
What do you mean for some reason? I mean they
were mixed step into the beat, Mango. Yeah, I mean
nothing gets you more excited than a mandatory pep rally exactly. Well,
you know today's show is about more than Burger inspired
dance moves, because for too long now, we've been plagued
by some pretty important questions, you know, things like did
Michael Jackson really invent the moonwalk? And why are good
(05:49):
ballet shoes so hard to find? And why do we
teach kids to square dance in gym class. That's a
big one that I feel like we should answer. But
today we're gonna hit the dance floor and see if
we can find only unraveled some of the weird and
surprising mysteries of dance. And I feel like I'm gonna
let you take the lead on this one, Mango. So
where should we start? So you remember that one glorious
(06:10):
Stefan song. The rhythm is gonna get you. I'm a
little I'm a little insulted that you would ask if
I know the rhythm is going too? Of course, Yeah,
so my question is basically why, like, what is it
about watching people dance that makes you want to dance yourself?
It's a good question. And I will also say that
that line always sounded a little ominous to me, like
(06:32):
something was coming after me and it is going to
get you in a very catchy way. But you know what,
We talk about all kinds of things going viral on
the internet now, but dancing in particular has a really
long history of being likened to a virus. So you
and our listeners have probably heard of that so called
dancing plague that struck Europe in the early fifteen hundreds,
And this is when hundreds of people started compulsively dancing
(06:54):
for days on end without resting, and within a month
or so, many of them had collapsed or even died
from exhaustion. And today researchers have all kinds of ideas
about what brings on these bizarre forms of mania, everything
from like food poisoning, the psychosis, but there's still are
no hard answers, like the rhythm simply got them boy
(07:15):
did it? Yeah? I mean the dance plague is a
pretty extreme case. I think about times when you're just
watching a performance and you know, you may start to
move your shoulders or bobbing your head and just kind
of dancing along a little bit in your seat, like
did you come across any answers for why that happens. So,
nothing concrete, but there's a good deal of evidence to
(07:36):
suggest that our bodies are attuned to the movements of
others because of responses in our brains. So the idea
is that whenever we make a certain movement, a corresponding
region of the brain is activated. But this is where
it gets weird, because that region of the brain is
activated not only when we perform the movement ourselves, but
when we observe someone else performing it. So you're saying,
(07:56):
like when we watch somebody dance, our brains are sort
of sim relating the dance steps internally. Is that is
that what you're saying exactly, And this unconscious response is
actually strong enough in some people that they will actually
start to, you know, act out the movements they're internalizing.
How heidened your responses depends on how familiar you are
with the movements and how much enjoyment you get from
(08:17):
making them yourself. So, for example, like the motor regions
of professional dancers brain will actually become much more active
when they watch someone dance compared to someone who doesn't
dance themselves. Yeah, that's pretty interesting. But I mean, there
is one form of dance and and that would probably
ballet that my brain just throws in the towel, Like
those are movements I can't even think through, but much
(08:38):
less perform myself. And that's especially true of the moves
where the ballerinas are on their toes. And I've always
just found this so interesting, and I thought I would
look into the background of this, and it turns up
ballerinas first started dancing on their toes in the late
seventeen hundreds, but not in the way that we're used to.
At first, the dancers were actually lifted off the stage
(08:59):
by this system of wires so that it would appear
like they were hovering on their toes. And years later
this system lead to the invention of point shoes, which
were then sturdy enough for the dancers to actually balance
on their toes without the aid of these wires. So
I've actually been curious about this. So do point shoes
have like solid wood in the tips or how are
they so hard there? You know, I always thought that
(09:21):
they did, but it turns out there actually made from
layers of fabric and paper that have been hardened, and
they hardened them with a flour paste, so it's a
little bit more like paper mache. And then once that
shape is set, the shoes are wrapped in satin, and
then the tips are flattened with an actual hammer, and
and that kind of forms that platform for the dancers
(09:41):
to stand on. But you know, the initial process is
really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes
to modding point shoes, because before a ballerina can debut
a fresh pair on stage, she first has to spend
several hours, you know, cutting and ripping and scraping and
crushing and often even burning these shoes in order to
make them fit just right. I mean that sounds insane,
(10:04):
but you know, well, why can't shoemakers just make the
shoes the way dancers like them from the start? Well
I was wondering that too, But if you think about it,
there's just way too much variation between the shape and
size of a dancer's feet for these manufacturers to be
able to cover that, and they'd have to specially make
these shoes for each and every dancer which isn't really
financially feasible when you consider that some dancers wear out
(10:26):
a pair of points after a single performance, and many
of these dancers may go through over a hundred pairs
of shoes over the course of a season. So well,
it's certainly time consuming for the dancers to alter their
own shoes. It's probably the most practical solution. So what
kind of benefits to the ballerinas get from these specialized modifications, Well,
(10:46):
it depends, like each dancer likes their shoes a little
bit different, so the methods, you know, very based on
what they may be looking for. So, for example, some
ballerinas cut the soles out of their shoes to improve
that flexibility, and then they may superglue them back together again.
And others outfit their shoes with a product called ouch pouches,
which are basically these silicone gel caps that that you
(11:10):
will provide a little extra padding for their toes. And
I even read about one ballerina who likes to rip
out the soul and lining of her shoes and then
mark the spot where her arches are and then break
the shoes in half with her hands from there. But
the other thing I thought was really cool about this
is that these rituals, they're really passed down from one
generation of dancers to the next, So when a ballerina
(11:33):
first starts out, she'll often have a more experienced dancer
that will show her the tricks of the trade and
kind of help her craft her own. I mean that
that is pretty cool, And I also like how all
that labor is sort of representative of ballet as a whole. Like,
on the outside, the shoes look polished and flawless, just
like the dance moves, but beneath the surface, there's this
(11:53):
insane level of hard work and struggle that goes into
making them so perfect. Yeah, that seems like a good
way to think about it. It's often easy to forget
just how painful ballet dancing can be because of how
graceful the final product looks. But just reading up on points,
I mean, I saw that even for all the effort
that goes into making the shoes fit perfectly, it still
(12:14):
hurts so much when a ballerina dances on the tips
of her toes most of the time, and apparently the
pain can get so bad that some dancers even soaked
their feet in alcohol or apply tooth numbing gel just
to make it through a single practice session. Ah, that's brutal.
But you know, speaking of pain, what what do you
say we head back to school for a minute and
talk about the all too familiar pain of being forced
(12:36):
to square dance in gym class. You know, the only
thing more painful than dancing in those points shoes maybe
square dancing and it it's just it's such a bizarre
practice and it feels like the kind of thing that's
bound to have some really weird story behind it. Yeah,
and it actually does, because while square dancing dates back
to colonial America, the modern revival that led to it
(12:57):
being taught in schools is actually thanks to none other
than Henry Ford. Seriously, Ford, So what does he have
to do with it? So? I mean, the first thing
to know is that Ford despised jazz music and everything
related to it. So that's like the Flappers, the Charleston
swing dancing. He hated all of it. But that wasn't
all that Ford hated. He also hated Jewish people. Oh
(13:20):
that's right, And he was pretty outspoken with his anti semitism, right, Like,
didn't even write a bunch of propaganda pamphlets about it.
That's right. So in the early nine twenties he put
out a four volume series of booklets called The International Jew.
And while I hate to quote from something so baseless
and hateful that, there's one excerpt of the third volume
that really explains Ford's thinking on jazz and why he
(13:40):
would be so interested in square dance revival. So here
it goes Ford rights quote. Many people have wondered whence
came the waves upon waves of musical slush that invade
decent homes and set the young people of this generation
imitating the dribble of morons. Popular music is a Jewish monopoly.
Jazz is a Jewish creation. The mush, slush, the sly suggestion,
(14:02):
the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes are all of Jewish origin. Wait,
so Ford really believe that Jewish people invented jazz music?
I mean, give me a break. Yeah, I mean, I
guess he somehow convinced himself that it was all part
of a secret plan to corrupt the masses and to
get them to take up drinking and smoking and all
sorts of other vices that you know, Ford being approved
(14:25):
disapproved of. But there's at least one form of dancing
that Ford and his wife could get behind, and that's
what they referred to as quote old fashioned dancing. So
this included square dancing, but also other anglos accent dances
like waltzes and quadrills. And most of the country, including
the rural parts, had moved on from old fashioned dances
like this in favor of jazz or swing. But you know,
(14:47):
the Fords thought they could counteract these bad influences by
rekindling the country's passion for square dancing. So did that end.
Ford poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into square dancing
and other forms of country music, and he funded a
fiddling contests. He paid radio shows to promote old time
dancing music. He started square dancing clubs all over the country.
He even made a requirement for all his employees to
(15:08):
attend special square dancing events that he organized for them.
And let me guess, he then campaigned for square dancing
to be taught in public schools. Yeah. So, according to Ford,
square dancing would make this super valuable addition to physical
education classes because, as he put it, it would teach
children quote social training, courtesy, good citizenship along with rhythm
(15:30):
and why you could probably argue that there are better
ways to teach that kind of stuff. Plenty of schools
agreed with Ford's way of thinking, and by nearly half
of the schools in America had started teaching their students
to square dance, which is a trend that's continued right
up to today. I mean, it's impressive just how widespread
this was, how effective he was at getting this taught
in schools. And I can't say I've ever been a
(15:52):
fan of square dancing, but I like it even less
now than I know. It was basically foisted on a spy,
a white supremacist, and it just doesn't feel like a
good look. Yeah, I mean, I've told other people about
this before, but like the two worst sections of gym
class for me in middle school where wrestling, when they
would take all the boys and put them in the
small gym and you would line up around by your
(16:14):
weight and from lowest, so I was always like the
second person. And then they would call out your name
with another person and you have to wrestle in the middle,
and it was far far and and then the other
thing that I hated was square dancing. I was like,
why can't we just play regular sports? Have to be
an exhibition. But you know, when you look at the
(16:36):
actual history of square dancing, it is pretty ironic that
Ford viewed it as this sort of intrinsically white way
to beat back the influence of Black and Jewish music,
because you know, the truth is that black people played
a huge role in the development of square dancing as
we know it today. But wait, though, isn't isn't it
rooted in European dances that the colonists brought over? Yeah,
(16:57):
I mean that's true, Like, like a lot of the
dance moves in terminology were adapted for the French, which
is why you can go to a square dance today
and hear them use words like promenade and docie dough,
which is actually a corruption of the French phrase back
to back. But you know, when white colonists were dancing
these steps in the early days of America, it was
enslaved African Americans who provide the music, and it's through
(17:19):
these musicians that square dancing really gained one of its
most recognizable features, having a performer call out the dance
figures to the audience, and at the time, many white
dancers memorized the steps. You know, with the help of
private instructors, so there really wasn't a need to have
the steps called out to them. But when enslaved blacks
began adapting these dance moves for themselves, they needed a
way to keep track of the steps, so they started
(17:40):
calling out the moves to one another, and eventually this
call and response pattern it was adapted by white dancers,
and pretty soon it became a crucial part of square
dancing tradition. Well, it seemed a little bit convenient of
Henry for to overlook that bit of history, But all right, Well,
let's stick with the seedier side of dance for just
a minute and take a look at a few other
dance related contract verses that have come up over the years.
(18:02):
But before we do that, let's take a quick break.
(18:29):
They're listening to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about
the surprising histories and controversies behind some of the world's
most famous dance moves. So, Mago, you remember back in
the early nineties when Madonna had that hit song called Vogue.
You remember Madonna? Yeah, I've heard of Madonna. It feels
like everyone was striking a post back then. I remember
the video had all those like hand movements and fancy twirls,
(18:50):
and it's still probably one of her most famous dances.
You know, it definitely is, and you know it's it's
it's interesting because the popularity doesn't sit well with some
people because well, my Donna typically gets credit for the
song and the dance. She actually didn't come up with
the moves herself. And you know, by most accounts, Vogue
was invented in Harlem in the nineteen eighties and it
was first danced by these black drag queens that were
(19:13):
in the lgbt Q club scene. And these drag queens
were inspired by the glamorous women that they might see
on Fifth Avenue, as you know, as well as like
fashion magazines. You think of Vogue, of course, which is
where the dance gets its name. But it was more
than just a series of these elaborate hand movements and
runway model poses and things like that. I mean, these
(19:35):
drag queens were actually using it as a storytelling device,
and so they'd get up on stage and act out
these little scenes and they'd use their hands to show
how they'd gotten dressed in drag or maybe how they'd
applied makeup or tease their hair, and so the net
result was really this string of poses that was often
very revealing and very personal about how a performer was
(19:58):
thinking about themselves and how they might live their life.
I guess, which is pretty awesome. And and I do
know a little bit about that like Harlem ballroom scene
and the dance clubs where this came out of. But
you know, how does Madonna fit into all of this. Well,
supposedly she was introduced to vogue by some friends who
happened to be members of the drag community at the time,
(20:18):
And this was some time in the late eighties, and
the single really fell in love with the moves and
and wanted to showcase them in a song on her
next album. And of course she did this, and you know,
all Madonna likely saw this exposure is is somewhat of
a gift to the voguing community. There were lots of
people who didn't see it that way. I mean, they
believe Madonna was co opting their dance and their experience
(20:40):
and was doing all of this really for her own
commercial gain. Yeah, I mean, I can see the arguments there,
but honestly, whether it's fair or not, Madonna is definitely
the person who comes to mind when most of us
think about voguing, and it makes sense that the drag
community would bristle at having this straight white pop star
become the symbol of something they came up with. Yeah,
and it's one drag scene veteran put it. You know,
(21:00):
Madonna took quote a very specifically queer, transgender, Latino and
African American phenomenon and totally erased that context. She was
taking tons of money while the queen who actually taught
her how to Vogue said in the club strung out,
depressed and broke. Yeah, And like a lot of these things,
there really are two sizes of this, right, Like, if
(21:22):
you think back to the dancers in that Vogue video,
it seems like Madonna was pretty good about representation in
it all. She definitely brought a few people from the
Vogue scene along for the ride, and not just in
the video, but also on the tour she did for
the album. So there's no doubt she ended up benefiting
some of the people who originated the dance. And like
you said, it's always a little bit tricky, and the
(21:42):
real question is whether that's enough to absolve her of
what many people saw as kind of a form of
cultural appropriation. Well, I mean, I do think she deserves
some points for taking this decidedly queer art form and
giving it mainstream exposure in America if nothing else like
that had to mean a lot to these people in
these underserved and underrepresented communities. Yeah, and you know, to
(22:04):
go to bat for Madonna for a little bit here,
you know, if you think about this, she's been a
friend to the LGBTQ community for decades now, and she's
employed a ton of gay dancers and instructors over the
years and become a close friend and ally to many
of them. And you know, she spearheaded fundraisers and awareness
campaigns to help combat the AIDS epidemic. And this was
at a time when neither the government nor really the
(22:25):
public at large, we're doing that much else to help
with the problem. So, you know, even if we do
take her to task for co opting the Vogue, it's
it's worth remembering that she's also given back to these
communities where she drew so much of that creative inspiration. Well,
I want to switch gears a little and tell you
about the time Serena Williams drew heat for borrowing some
controversial dance moves of her own. And this was back
(22:48):
during the two thousand and twelve Olympics, right after her
gold medal singles victory against Maria Sharapova. I remember this,
actually she she did the It's called the Sea Walk, right,
that's right. And this was a big deal for some
people because this in the name actually stands for a
Crip And of course the Crips are pretty notorious gang
that grew out of l A County. You know, I
knew that was the name, but I've always been a
(23:09):
little hazy on the association, Like is the dance really
connected to the gang or is this more of an
urban legend kind of thing. No, there's definitely a connection.
So supposedly the gang invented the dance about forty years
ago in Compton, and it was actually a way for
them to disrespect their rival gang, the Bloods. So the
Crips would spell out the other gang's name on the sidewalk,
(23:30):
you know, in chalk or something, and then they'd cross
it out by using the dance to spell out their
own name with their feet. But I mean that was
a long time ago, right, Like that is that the
Sea Walk pretty divorced from the Gang Ties by now, Yeah,
I mean the connection was tough to shake for a while,
and in the early two thousands the dance was even
banned from schools in certain areas. But since then a
ton of performers have used the dance without issues, including
(23:51):
everyone from Snoop Dogg to Justin timber Lake. Like a
couple other dancers have spun out the sea walk to
like there's the clown Walk and the Crown Walk, and
actually some people maintain that Serena was really doing one
of those two after her win anyway, Yeah, I mean,
it always seemed like the blowback she got was a
little more about the fact that she was celebrating it
all rather than maybe like the specific dance that she did.
(24:13):
And it does feel like a bit of a double
standard because she's a black female. And I mean, if
Justin Timberlake can get away with doing it, I feel
like she should be able to as well. So there's
actually another reason why I think Serena's dance should get
a pass. And a lot of people don't know this,
but the Williams sisters used to have a half sister
named Yetunda Price and tragically back in two thousand three,
(24:35):
Price was shot and killed by an active member of
this outside crips gang. So you know, when you consider that,
if Serena feels like the dance step is far enough
removed from gang violence for you know, for her to
feel comfortable doing it, then really, who are we to
argue with her? Yeah? That's that's a good point, pretty compelling.
But you know, one thing I noticed while digging into
dance history is that dances often fall in and out
(24:58):
of favor over time, and they never really stay fixed.
I mean, they're kind of always evolving and may take
on new shades of meaning as different generations and cultures
kind of put their own spin on them. Yeah, I
know what you mean. And the example I always think
of is Capuira, Like is it a dance or martial art?
Is it Brazilian or is it African? Like the truth
(25:18):
is somewhere in the middle, because over the years, cap
Wire has been all of these things and more to
so many different people. Oh, that is definitely something I
feel like we should talk about. But before we get
to that, let's take one more quick break, Okay, Mango,
(25:45):
So give us some more background on Capira, because I
don't think it's an art form that a lot of
people know that much about, and it's kind of like
the precursor to break dancing, though, isn't it. So that
breakdancing connection. There's actually a whole kind of worms that
I'll get into in a minute. But yeah, on the surface,
the do practices do have a lot in common, like
the footwork, the upside down movements, the way the performers
(26:08):
interact with the ground, like, it's all pretty similar. But
while breaking had this pretty definitive start in the Bronx
during the late seventies, Capuarra's history is a little hazier.
So what we do know for sure is that capurera
was developed in Brazil by enslaved Africans, sometimes between the
fifteen hundreds and the eighteen hundreds. And as you might remember,
Brazil was a colony of Portugal for that three hundred
(26:29):
years span, and during that time and estimated four million
enslaved people were brought across the Atlantic to Brazil. The
majority were forced to work in gold and diamond mines
or in the country's vast sugar cane fields, but some
managed to escape inland and hide out in the rainforests
and some historians think that that's where Capuarrera got a start.
So over time, the theory is that these escaped Africans
(26:50):
were able to find each other and as they did,
they began to form these independent communities. It was rooted
in expressions of African culture, and capuara is thought to
be one of those expressions, like a form of defense
that relies on these rid, big movements to disarm and
confuse and ultimately defeat an opponent or I see so,
so the dance elements are are really kind of men
(27:12):
as a way to distract an opponent or throw them
off balance or something. So that's definitely one theory. There's
another theory that capuara emerged before the Africans escaped, and
that to hide this new form of fighting from the
slave masters, they started camouflaging it as a dance and
that way they could train for potential revolt right out
in the open. And if you go by this theory,
(27:33):
it also explains why instruments were later added to capuwarra.
I mean, what better way to complete this dance disguise
than by adding music to the mix? Yeah, and you
know it starts to make sense what you were talking
about before, with Capewra being really kind of morphed to
fit the needs of different people, different time periods. But
I do want to go back to that break dancing
connection though, because you know, I know, Capawarra made its
(27:55):
way stateside in the nineteen seventies and that was around
the time that you know, break dancers were getting started.
But with all the similarities that you mentioned, it feels
like there's got to be some kind of connection though,
right Well, I mean a lot of people think so, Actually,
do you remember this When we used to go for
hip hop shows at the Cat's Cradles, sometimes there'd be
a group of breakdancers and a group of Caprara enthusiasts
(28:18):
and the kind of dance off it was amazing. But
you know, you'd assume they're sort of linked in some
greater way, But I really couldn't find anything to support
the idea. And like you said, Caprara came to the
U s in the mid seventies, and that was largely
thanks to two veteran practitioners who started touring the country
and teaching the techniques at various colleges. But there doesn't
(28:39):
seem to be much, if any evidence of overlap between
capua and the earliest breakdancers, and instead most breakers will
actually tell you that they took their early moves from
kung fu movies more than anything else. But of course,
even if capuarra didn't give birth to break dancing, it's
safe to say that both practices have inspired each other
and the time since. Well, and besides that, I mean,
capwarra and break dancing or so both rooted in African traditions.
(29:02):
So even if they did develop centuries and thousands of
miles apart, I mean, maybe their connection is is less
like a parent and child and more like that of
maybe two distant cousins or something. Yeah, definitely like origins aside,
these are two forms of expression that definitely have a
lot in common. All Right, Well, I know we're running
out of time here, but I'd be remiss if I
(29:22):
didn't mention a milestone in dance history that I was
just reading about this week, because, as it turns out,
this year is actually the thirty fifth anniversary of Michael
Jackson's Moonwalk. Can you believe it's been that long? I
mean I can't, but you do know that the Moonwalk
is like way older than that, right, well, I said
it was the thirty fifth anniversary of Michael Jackson's moon,
(29:43):
not the first ever moonwalk. But while we're talking about that,
refresh my memory though, like who beat MJ to the
punch on this one? So there are more people than
I had remember. David Bowie did his own take on
the move during his nine tour back in the fifties.
Both Cab Callaway and Bill Bailey and did moonwalks in
their performances. And probably the earliest case I've heard of
(30:03):
is actually that famous French mim Marcel Marsio and uh,
he actually had this act in the forties called Walking
in the Wind where he would pretend to brace himself
against this imaginary wind, and so he would act like
he was struggling against the wind, and as he did this,
he would slide backwards. But the interesting thing about him
is that he was actually friends with Michael Jackson for decades,
(30:24):
and Jackson said multiple times that the mime's work had
this huge influence on his performance style. That's interesting. I mean,
Jackson was probably influenced by each of those performers in
in one way or another. But you know, from what
I've read, it actually looks like m J patterned this
moonwalk after these two break dancers that he'd seen on
an episode of Soul Train, And this was a few
(30:44):
years before all of this, and their names were Geron
Casper Candidate and Coolie Jackson. No relation here, And the
story goes that MJ remembered their performance and wound up
arranging a meeting with the men while he was prepping
for his big Motown special. Now this was in three
and so the guys taught them this backslide move and
(31:05):
Jackson practiced it until he had it down pad and
he wanted to debut this moonwalk during the Motown special,
And this was a very strategic move on his part.
So at the time, Michael had already released two solo albums,
but he wasn't completely out of the shadow of the
Jackson five, And in fact, the bulk of his performance
(31:25):
during the special was devoted to this Jackson five reunion
of sorts. But Michael only agreed to appear at all
because he was able to convince the producer to let
him do this solo performance and he wanted to do one,
especially of a non motown song, and the producer agrees
to this, and so Jackson ends up performing Billy Jean
(31:45):
on stage that night for a television audience of thirty
four million people. And so you know, of course you
think about this, how did Jackson ensure the performance was
a memorable one? Well, it was a few seconds of
sliding backwards across the stage and that did it. Well.
I mean, clearly it worked, and it's basically become his
signature move. Yeah, and crowds just ate it up. And
(32:07):
I'd read that even Freddish Stair apparently called Jackson after
the Motown performance to congratulate him. And the move was
a game changer for Jackson's career in the world of dance,
and it seems like everybody knew it, And of course
one of the drawbacks to that is that everybody then
tried to replicate the move themselves, and usually very unsuccessful.
(32:27):
You know what's funny that I've actually heard that Jackson's
pet chimpanzee Bubbles got pretty good at the Moonwalk, really,
which is way more than I could say. I feel
like the arch Deluxe is probably more my speed. Well,
I'm sure Tristan will teach it to you any time
you want. But in the meantime, though, I think there
are a few more dance moves that we haven't gotten
to yet. So what do you say we slip on
(32:49):
our dancing shoes and bust out a couple of quick
moves in the fact off definitely a well. Earlier this year,
New Orleans was the home to a revival of this
eight show called Tabasco, a Burlesque Opera. And yes it
(33:11):
is that Tabasco. So there's a conductor named Paul Moffrey
and he stumbled into this program for the old show
while doing some research on the history of New Orleans music. Now,
the opera is about this Irish traveler who gets lost
at sea and he ends up landing in Morocco and
is forced to become a chef for this military officer there. Now,
(33:31):
the military officer there happens to love spicy food, and
so in his effort to come up with just the
right dish for him, Tabasco sauce comes to the rescue. Now,
I had no idea that Tabasco had been around that long,
but it's apparently celebrating it's a hundred and fiftieth anniversary
this year. So back to this original performance back in
(33:54):
the Louisiana based company Tabasco. They actually agreed to underwrite
part of the cost of the show if they would
give out tiny bottles of the stuff at these performances
when it debuted in Boston, and it turns out the
show had a pretty good run across a bunch of
US cities, but they ran into some legal battles over
the use of the product and the kind of the
(34:15):
rights around the show, and so the show closed down
and it almost disappeared completely until Maffrey discovered it more
than a hundred years later. Wow. So, I know we've
talked about prison reform and unique prisons in previous episodes,
but there's one I don't think we talked about, and
that's Eohi Prison and Penal Farm in the Philippines. So
(34:36):
this is where inmates dance with and for tourists, and
the place sprawls over sixty four thousand acres and the
inmates pretty much moved freely across a tourists visit and
they stopped by the recreation center to see ten to
twenty inmates perform multiple songs, and then the tourists stick
around to check out and purchase various crafts the inmates
have made and it's definitely unlike any prison you'd find
(34:59):
in the stay. Yeah, I haven't heard of anything like that.
That's that's very interesting. Well, we couldn't do an episode
on Dances without covering the Chicken Dance. He had to
know this one is coming at some point, and it
turns out it was kind of name this by accident.
So the melody for the song was written more than
sixty years ago and was written by this Swiss musician
(35:20):
named Werner Thomas. Thomas used to make a living by
playing accordion at these various holiday resorts in Switzerland, and
as he came up with the melody, he gradually began
putting dance moves to it. But weirdly, the moves weren't
inspired by chickens but by skiers, which sounds a little
bit surprising, But many the motions of skiers flying down
(35:42):
these mountains there really reminded Thomas of different birds, and
so he started to put some of these motions into
a dance that they started to call dance Little Bird.
So how did it become the Chicken Dance? Well, it's
tough to say, but it may have something to do
with this October Fest celebration. That actually happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
(36:03):
back in nine. There was a German band there that
decided to play the song, and the organizers of the event,
I guess they were super excited about this song for
some reason. But they thought it would be fun to
find a costume to go along with the dance, and
the best thing they could find was a chicken suit
that a local TV station had, And so, of course
the rest is history. That is amazing. I feel embarrassed
(36:28):
that I didn't look up a chicken dance fact. Yeah,
that's so so. Back in the late twenties and early thirties,
a certain type of dance hall started popping up in
big cities like Chicago, New York City, and these were
dance halls where men could dance with hired women dancers
for ten cents a song. And by the early thirties
there were over a hundred of these so called taxi
dance halls in New York City. Something like fifty thousand
(36:50):
men would visit these each week. And this is sociologist
named Paul G. Cruscy. We know some of the lingo
in history, and that's how it's been preserved. So the
dances were often referred to as nickel hoppers since they
usually made half of the ten cents the men would pay.
And weirdly, the trends stuck around until the mid nineteen hundreds,
but that's when law enforcement began cracking down on things
(37:12):
like prostitution, mob activities and all of that stuff that
had been sort of associated with these dance halls. All right, Well,
recent studies have shown the benefits of dancing for Parkinson's
disease or for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, and in fact,
several studies have looked at this and they found that
dancing helps really on two fronts. Now. The first is
(37:32):
more on the physical side, where this rhythmic movement from
dancing can actually help reduce the motor control difficulties that
are often accompanied by Parkinson's, and the relief isn't necessarily
a media but over time it does seem to help
train the brain and the body for you know, more
fluid motion. And not surprisingly, the other major benefit of
(37:53):
dancing for those with Parkinson's is reducing some of that
social isolation that many of the patients often experience. And,
as one dance instructor put it, their mood changes within
a few minutes of being there. They're no longer patients,
but dance students. Well, speaking of dance classes. Back in
two thousand eleven, this nearly a forty story mall in Soul,
(38:15):
South Korea started shaking, and it did so for nearly
ten minutes. And the weird events caused this two day evacuation,
and of course this investigation, and you won't believe what
cost it, or maybe you will. It turns out that
a couple dozen middle aged people in a tybo class
started dancing to the power by the band The Snap
and you know the song it's like. So the investigation
(38:39):
revealed that it wasn't the weight of the people dancing,
it was just their rhythm. And as Professor Chong Lan
of den Cook University explained, quote, it just happens to
be that the vibration set up by the tybo coincided
with the residence frequency unique to the building. Wow, there
is no way to top that. And and and actually
the fact that Tristan is now out of his chair
(39:00):
doing some of his own tybo moves. I mean, this
is a total blowout. I'm gonna have to give you
today's trophy. Mango Thank you so much well, and thank
you guys for listening. We'd love to hear your great
dance stories or dance facts. You can always email those
two part Time Genius and How Stuff Works dot com
or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. But as always,
thanks so much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part
(39:36):
Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and
wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the
important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil
does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song
and does the MIXI mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does
the exact producer thing. Gay Blues years our lead researcher,
with support from the Research Army, including Austin Thompson, Nolan
Brown and Lucas Adams. And Eve Jeff Cook gets the
(39:58):
show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like
what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, and if you
really really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave
a good review for us. We did. We forget Jason Jason,
who
I guess what mango? What's that? Will? All right? So
we decided to do today's episode on different dances. I
started thinking back to all the dances that we learned
as kids, and all the songs where every kid in
school felt like they had to master the dance moves.
So when you think about this, what dance has come
to mind? So you know what strange is that I
was actually thinking about this recently, and obviously their moves
(00:24):
like the Roger rabbit or whatever, But I actually kind
of feel grateful that we grew up in this era
when there weren't a lot of great dances, and at
least when we were in middle school, Like, uh, all
the breakdancing and moonwalking was over by then, and then
all the songs seemed to be just about jumping, like
some pain was jump around criss cross, had that song
jumped like feel like dancing to Nirvana was just like
(00:46):
bouncing up and down and bumping into each other. And
it was totally right about this. I didn't think about
that so much easier than like watching what my kids
have to go through just to keep up with like
the shoot and the whip nene, and like practicing how
to floss all the time. Yeah, I mean, I get
what you're saying, But you know, a few others do
come to mind for me, and and probably to stand
out above the others, you know. The first of these
(01:08):
was definitely Michael Jackson's Thriller. And I know I've mentioned
this before, but my sister was a few years older
than me, and so when she was out with friends
or still at school, I would often sneak into her
room and listen to tapes on that fancy double cassette
boom box that she had, and you know, I might
pop in some Duran, Duran or the Bangles or any
number of other tapes that she had. But my favorite
(01:29):
was definitely Michael Jackson's Thriller. And I was terrible at
dancing to that song, but it didn't stop me from
trying to master it. But you know, the other dance
that comes to mind, and you might argue this one
was a little bit easier to master, that was the
electric slide. So I remember going into the school dance
in like sixth grade and suddenly everyone was doing the
(01:49):
electric slide and I couldn't figure out, like, had I
missed a class where this was taught because like everyone
knew how to do it well. It might have felt
like everybody mastered it. But my guess is the dances creator,
Richard Silver, he might not agree with that, you know,
especially if you weren't doing all twenty two proper steps
of the dance. Now this may seem a little bit silly,
(02:10):
but he was serious about this. So Silver was this
well known dancer in the New York City disco scene,
and he came up with the Electric Slide in nineteen
seventy six, and he was more than a little particular
about people doing it just right, especially because there was
this version of the dance that caught on that only
involved eighteen of the twenty two steps that he'd choreographed.
(02:32):
And he'd get so angry about people doing it wrong
that for years he would threaten to sue people who
were doing it incorrectly, and he even convinced YouTube to
take down several videos of like weddings and bar Mitzvah's
and other parties that involved people butchering his creation. Is
this not nuts, that's amazing. But he finally gave up
(02:53):
on trying to police the world on behalf of his
dance when this other civil rights organization. They actually sued
him on behalf of a man whose party clips had
been taken down from the web because of silver. But anyway,
this this bizarre incident got us thinking about the unusual
and often controversial origins of some of the most well
(03:13):
known dances in history. And that's what we're gonna be
talking about today. So let's dive in. Y Hey there,
(03:39):
podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
and as always I'm joined by my good friend man
gues Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof
glass practicing the steps for the official Arch Deluxe line dance.
That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, I have
to admit i'd never heard of this, but apparently this
dance was part of a McDonald's ad campaign back in
(04:00):
the mid nineties. Do you remember this Mango, Yeah, the
Arch Deluxe. It was a giant failure from what I remember. Yeah,
And I guess the company was trying to attract older
customers by introducing what they build as quote the burger
with the grown up taste, which is such a weird line.
And you're right, it sounds like nobody liked it. I
don't think the dance fared that much better either. But
(04:22):
Tristan actually dug up the steps on the old arch
Deluxe website, which you can apparently still access. And I
think everybody should do this because it's just as ridiculous
as you might imagine. I mean, listen to some of
these dance moves and they describe them in detail for you.
Here it says, right, arm rolls up and down twice
like the wave and a nocean. Then step forward and
(04:45):
form the golden arches with your arms. What what could
be cooler than doing these dance moves? But unsurprisingly this
did not catch on, and that's despite McDonald's bold claim
that quote people across America are mixed step and to
the beat of the newest dance craze. So I looked
into this and it seems like the whole idea was
(05:05):
meant as a way to capitalize on how popular the
Macarina was at the time, and the company went all
out to try and make this the next big thing.
And I've read that they actually shuttled a bunch of
employees to McDonald's headquarters for do the deluxe dance lessons.
And then there was a giant pep rally right there after,
and the village people attended and performed for some reason.
(05:26):
What do you mean for some reason? I mean they
were mixed step into the beat, Mango. Yeah, I mean
nothing gets you more excited than a mandatory pep rally exactly. Well,
you know today's show is about more than Burger inspired
dance moves, because for too long now, we've been plagued
by some pretty important questions, you know, things like did
Michael Jackson really invent the moonwalk? And why are good
(05:49):
ballet shoes so hard to find? And why do we
teach kids to square dance in gym class. That's a
big one that I feel like we should answer. But
today we're gonna hit the dance floor and see if
we can find only unraveled some of the weird and
surprising mysteries of dance. And I feel like I'm gonna
let you take the lead on this one, Mango. So
where should we start? So you remember that one glorious
(06:10):
Stefan song. The rhythm is gonna get you. I'm a
little I'm a little insulted that you would ask if
I know the rhythm is going too? Of course, Yeah,
so my question is basically why, like, what is it
about watching people dance that makes you want to dance yourself?
It's a good question. And I will also say that
that line always sounded a little ominous to me, like
(06:32):
something was coming after me and it is going to
get you in a very catchy way. But you know what,
We talk about all kinds of things going viral on
the internet now, but dancing in particular has a really
long history of being likened to a virus. So you
and our listeners have probably heard of that so called
dancing plague that struck Europe in the early fifteen hundreds,
And this is when hundreds of people started compulsively dancing
(06:54):
for days on end without resting, and within a month
or so, many of them had collapsed or even died
from exhaustion. And today researchers have all kinds of ideas
about what brings on these bizarre forms of mania, everything
from like food poisoning, the psychosis, but there's still are
no hard answers, like the rhythm simply got them boy
(07:15):
did it? Yeah? I mean the dance plague is a
pretty extreme case. I think about times when you're just
watching a performance and you know, you may start to
move your shoulders or bobbing your head and just kind
of dancing along a little bit in your seat, like
did you come across any answers for why that happens. So,
nothing concrete, but there's a good deal of evidence to
(07:36):
suggest that our bodies are attuned to the movements of
others because of responses in our brains. So the idea
is that whenever we make a certain movement, a corresponding
region of the brain is activated. But this is where
it gets weird, because that region of the brain is
activated not only when we perform the movement ourselves, but
when we observe someone else performing it. So you're saying,
(07:56):
like when we watch somebody dance, our brains are sort
of sim relating the dance steps internally. Is that is
that what you're saying exactly, And this unconscious response is
actually strong enough in some people that they will actually
start to, you know, act out the movements they're internalizing.
How heidened your responses depends on how familiar you are
with the movements and how much enjoyment you get from
(08:17):
making them yourself. So, for example, like the motor regions
of professional dancers brain will actually become much more active
when they watch someone dance compared to someone who doesn't
dance themselves. Yeah, that's pretty interesting. But I mean, there
is one form of dance and and that would probably
ballet that my brain just throws in the towel, Like
those are movements I can't even think through, but much
(08:38):
less perform myself. And that's especially true of the moves
where the ballerinas are on their toes. And I've always
just found this so interesting, and I thought I would
look into the background of this, and it turns up
ballerinas first started dancing on their toes in the late
seventeen hundreds, but not in the way that we're used to.
At first, the dancers were actually lifted off the stage
(08:59):
by this system of wires so that it would appear
like they were hovering on their toes. And years later
this system lead to the invention of point shoes, which
were then sturdy enough for the dancers to actually balance
on their toes without the aid of these wires. So
I've actually been curious about this. So do point shoes
have like solid wood in the tips or how are
they so hard there? You know, I always thought that
(09:21):
they did, but it turns out there actually made from
layers of fabric and paper that have been hardened, and
they hardened them with a flour paste, so it's a
little bit more like paper mache. And then once that
shape is set, the shoes are wrapped in satin, and
then the tips are flattened with an actual hammer, and
and that kind of forms that platform for the dancers
(09:41):
to stand on. But you know, the initial process is
really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes
to modding point shoes, because before a ballerina can debut
a fresh pair on stage, she first has to spend
several hours, you know, cutting and ripping and scraping and
crushing and often even burning these shoes in order to
make them fit just right. I mean that sounds insane,
(10:04):
but you know, well, why can't shoemakers just make the
shoes the way dancers like them from the start? Well
I was wondering that too, But if you think about it,
there's just way too much variation between the shape and
size of a dancer's feet for these manufacturers to be
able to cover that, and they'd have to specially make
these shoes for each and every dancer which isn't really
financially feasible when you consider that some dancers wear out
(10:26):
a pair of points after a single performance, and many
of these dancers may go through over a hundred pairs
of shoes over the course of a season. So well,
it's certainly time consuming for the dancers to alter their
own shoes. It's probably the most practical solution. So what
kind of benefits to the ballerinas get from these specialized modifications, Well,
(10:46):
it depends, like each dancer likes their shoes a little
bit different, so the methods, you know, very based on
what they may be looking for. So, for example, some
ballerinas cut the soles out of their shoes to improve
that flexibility, and then they may superglue them back together again.
And others outfit their shoes with a product called ouch pouches,
which are basically these silicone gel caps that that you
(11:10):
will provide a little extra padding for their toes. And
I even read about one ballerina who likes to rip
out the soul and lining of her shoes and then
mark the spot where her arches are and then break
the shoes in half with her hands from there. But
the other thing I thought was really cool about this
is that these rituals, they're really passed down from one
generation of dancers to the next, So when a ballerina
(11:33):
first starts out, she'll often have a more experienced dancer
that will show her the tricks of the trade and
kind of help her craft her own. I mean that
that is pretty cool, And I also like how all
that labor is sort of representative of ballet as a whole. Like,
on the outside, the shoes look polished and flawless, just
like the dance moves, but beneath the surface, there's this
(11:53):
insane level of hard work and struggle that goes into
making them so perfect. Yeah, that seems like a good
way to think about it. It's often easy to forget
just how painful ballet dancing can be because of how
graceful the final product looks. But just reading up on points,
I mean, I saw that even for all the effort
that goes into making the shoes fit perfectly, it still
(12:14):
hurts so much when a ballerina dances on the tips
of her toes most of the time, and apparently the
pain can get so bad that some dancers even soaked
their feet in alcohol or apply tooth numbing gel just
to make it through a single practice session. Ah, that's brutal.
But you know, speaking of pain, what what do you
say we head back to school for a minute and
talk about the all too familiar pain of being forced
(12:36):
to square dance in gym class. You know, the only
thing more painful than dancing in those points shoes maybe
square dancing and it it's just it's such a bizarre
practice and it feels like the kind of thing that's
bound to have some really weird story behind it. Yeah,
and it actually does, because while square dancing dates back
to colonial America, the modern revival that led to it
(12:57):
being taught in schools is actually thanks to none other
than Henry Ford. Seriously, Ford, So what does he have
to do with it? So? I mean, the first thing
to know is that Ford despised jazz music and everything
related to it. So that's like the Flappers, the Charleston
swing dancing. He hated all of it. But that wasn't
all that Ford hated. He also hated Jewish people. Oh
(13:20):
that's right, And he was pretty outspoken with his anti semitism, right, Like,
didn't even write a bunch of propaganda pamphlets about it.
That's right. So in the early nine twenties he put
out a four volume series of booklets called The International Jew.
And while I hate to quote from something so baseless
and hateful that, there's one excerpt of the third volume
that really explains Ford's thinking on jazz and why he
(13:40):
would be so interested in square dance revival. So here
it goes Ford rights quote. Many people have wondered whence
came the waves upon waves of musical slush that invade
decent homes and set the young people of this generation
imitating the dribble of morons. Popular music is a Jewish monopoly.
Jazz is a Jewish creation. The mush, slush, the sly suggestion,
(14:02):
the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes are all of Jewish origin. Wait,
so Ford really believe that Jewish people invented jazz music?
I mean, give me a break. Yeah, I mean, I
guess he somehow convinced himself that it was all part
of a secret plan to corrupt the masses and to
get them to take up drinking and smoking and all
sorts of other vices that you know, Ford being approved
(14:25):
disapproved of. But there's at least one form of dancing
that Ford and his wife could get behind, and that's
what they referred to as quote old fashioned dancing. So
this included square dancing, but also other anglos accent dances
like waltzes and quadrills. And most of the country, including
the rural parts, had moved on from old fashioned dances
like this in favor of jazz or swing. But you know,
(14:47):
the Fords thought they could counteract these bad influences by
rekindling the country's passion for square dancing. So did that end.
Ford poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into square dancing
and other forms of country music, and he funded a
fiddling contests. He paid radio shows to promote old time
dancing music. He started square dancing clubs all over the country.
He even made a requirement for all his employees to
(15:08):
attend special square dancing events that he organized for them.
And let me guess, he then campaigned for square dancing
to be taught in public schools. Yeah. So, according to Ford,
square dancing would make this super valuable addition to physical
education classes because, as he put it, it would teach
children quote social training, courtesy, good citizenship along with rhythm
(15:30):
and why you could probably argue that there are better
ways to teach that kind of stuff. Plenty of schools
agreed with Ford's way of thinking, and by nearly half
of the schools in America had started teaching their students
to square dance, which is a trend that's continued right
up to today. I mean, it's impressive just how widespread
this was, how effective he was at getting this taught
in schools. And I can't say I've ever been a
(15:52):
fan of square dancing, but I like it even less
now than I know. It was basically foisted on a spy,
a white supremacist, and it just doesn't feel like a
good look. Yeah, I mean, I've told other people about
this before, but like the two worst sections of gym
class for me in middle school where wrestling, when they
would take all the boys and put them in the
small gym and you would line up around by your
(16:14):
weight and from lowest, so I was always like the
second person. And then they would call out your name
with another person and you have to wrestle in the middle,
and it was far far and and then the other
thing that I hated was square dancing. I was like,
why can't we just play regular sports? Have to be
an exhibition. But you know, when you look at the
(16:36):
actual history of square dancing, it is pretty ironic that
Ford viewed it as this sort of intrinsically white way
to beat back the influence of Black and Jewish music,
because you know, the truth is that black people played
a huge role in the development of square dancing as
we know it today. But wait, though, isn't isn't it
rooted in European dances that the colonists brought over? Yeah,
(16:57):
I mean that's true, Like, like a lot of the
dance moves in terminology were adapted for the French, which
is why you can go to a square dance today
and hear them use words like promenade and docie dough,
which is actually a corruption of the French phrase back
to back. But you know, when white colonists were dancing
these steps in the early days of America, it was
enslaved African Americans who provide the music, and it's through
(17:19):
these musicians that square dancing really gained one of its
most recognizable features, having a performer call out the dance
figures to the audience, and at the time, many white
dancers memorized the steps. You know, with the help of
private instructors, so there really wasn't a need to have
the steps called out to them. But when enslaved blacks
began adapting these dance moves for themselves, they needed a
way to keep track of the steps, so they started
(17:40):
calling out the moves to one another, and eventually this
call and response pattern it was adapted by white dancers,
and pretty soon it became a crucial part of square
dancing tradition. Well, it seemed a little bit convenient of
Henry for to overlook that bit of history, But all right, Well,
let's stick with the seedier side of dance for just
a minute and take a look at a few other
dance related contract verses that have come up over the years.
(18:02):
But before we do that, let's take a quick break.
(18:29):
They're listening to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about
the surprising histories and controversies behind some of the world's
most famous dance moves. So, Mago, you remember back in
the early nineties when Madonna had that hit song called Vogue.
You remember Madonna? Yeah, I've heard of Madonna. It feels
like everyone was striking a post back then. I remember
the video had all those like hand movements and fancy twirls,
(18:50):
and it's still probably one of her most famous dances.
You know, it definitely is, and you know it's it's
it's interesting because the popularity doesn't sit well with some
people because well, my Donna typically gets credit for the
song and the dance. She actually didn't come up with
the moves herself. And you know, by most accounts, Vogue
was invented in Harlem in the nineteen eighties and it
was first danced by these black drag queens that were
(19:13):
in the lgbt Q club scene. And these drag queens
were inspired by the glamorous women that they might see
on Fifth Avenue, as you know, as well as like
fashion magazines. You think of Vogue, of course, which is
where the dance gets its name. But it was more
than just a series of these elaborate hand movements and
runway model poses and things like that. I mean, these
(19:35):
drag queens were actually using it as a storytelling device,
and so they'd get up on stage and act out
these little scenes and they'd use their hands to show
how they'd gotten dressed in drag or maybe how they'd
applied makeup or tease their hair, and so the net
result was really this string of poses that was often
very revealing and very personal about how a performer was
(19:58):
thinking about themselves and how they might live their life.
I guess, which is pretty awesome. And and I do
know a little bit about that like Harlem ballroom scene
and the dance clubs where this came out of. But
you know, how does Madonna fit into all of this. Well,
supposedly she was introduced to vogue by some friends who
happened to be members of the drag community at the time,
(20:18):
And this was some time in the late eighties, and
the single really fell in love with the moves and
and wanted to showcase them in a song on her
next album. And of course she did this, and you know,
all Madonna likely saw this exposure is is somewhat of
a gift to the voguing community. There were lots of
people who didn't see it that way. I mean, they
believe Madonna was co opting their dance and their experience
(20:40):
and was doing all of this really for her own
commercial gain. Yeah, I mean, I can see the arguments there,
but honestly, whether it's fair or not, Madonna is definitely
the person who comes to mind when most of us
think about voguing, and it makes sense that the drag
community would bristle at having this straight white pop star
become the symbol of something they came up with. Yeah,
and it's one drag scene veteran put it. You know,
(21:00):
Madonna took quote a very specifically queer, transgender, Latino and
African American phenomenon and totally erased that context. She was
taking tons of money while the queen who actually taught
her how to Vogue said in the club strung out,
depressed and broke. Yeah, And like a lot of these things,
there really are two sizes of this, right, Like, if
(21:22):
you think back to the dancers in that Vogue video,
it seems like Madonna was pretty good about representation in
it all. She definitely brought a few people from the
Vogue scene along for the ride, and not just in
the video, but also on the tour she did for
the album. So there's no doubt she ended up benefiting
some of the people who originated the dance. And like
you said, it's always a little bit tricky, and the
(21:42):
real question is whether that's enough to absolve her of
what many people saw as kind of a form of
cultural appropriation. Well, I mean, I do think she deserves
some points for taking this decidedly queer art form and
giving it mainstream exposure in America if nothing else like
that had to mean a lot to these people in
these underserved and underrepresented communities. Yeah, and you know, to
(22:04):
go to bat for Madonna for a little bit here,
you know, if you think about this, she's been a
friend to the LGBTQ community for decades now, and she's
employed a ton of gay dancers and instructors over the
years and become a close friend and ally to many
of them. And you know, she spearheaded fundraisers and awareness
campaigns to help combat the AIDS epidemic. And this was
at a time when neither the government nor really the
(22:25):
public at large, we're doing that much else to help
with the problem. So, you know, even if we do
take her to task for co opting the Vogue, it's
it's worth remembering that she's also given back to these
communities where she drew so much of that creative inspiration. Well,
I want to switch gears a little and tell you
about the time Serena Williams drew heat for borrowing some
controversial dance moves of her own. And this was back
(22:48):
during the two thousand and twelve Olympics, right after her
gold medal singles victory against Maria Sharapova. I remember this,
actually she she did the It's called the Sea Walk, right,
that's right. And this was a big deal for some
people because this in the name actually stands for a
Crip And of course the Crips are pretty notorious gang
that grew out of l A County. You know, I
knew that was the name, but I've always been a
(23:09):
little hazy on the association, Like is the dance really
connected to the gang or is this more of an
urban legend kind of thing. No, there's definitely a connection.
So supposedly the gang invented the dance about forty years
ago in Compton, and it was actually a way for
them to disrespect their rival gang, the Bloods. So the
Crips would spell out the other gang's name on the sidewalk,
(23:30):
you know, in chalk or something, and then they'd cross
it out by using the dance to spell out their
own name with their feet. But I mean that was
a long time ago, right, Like that is that the
Sea Walk pretty divorced from the Gang Ties by now, Yeah,
I mean the connection was tough to shake for a while,
and in the early two thousands the dance was even
banned from schools in certain areas. But since then a
ton of performers have used the dance without issues, including
(23:51):
everyone from Snoop Dogg to Justin timber Lake. Like a
couple other dancers have spun out the sea walk to
like there's the clown Walk and the Crown Walk, and
actually some people maintain that Serena was really doing one
of those two after her win anyway, Yeah, I mean,
it always seemed like the blowback she got was a
little more about the fact that she was celebrating it
all rather than maybe like the specific dance that she did.
(24:13):
And it does feel like a bit of a double
standard because she's a black female. And I mean, if
Justin Timberlake can get away with doing it, I feel
like she should be able to as well. So there's
actually another reason why I think Serena's dance should get
a pass. And a lot of people don't know this,
but the Williams sisters used to have a half sister
named Yetunda Price and tragically back in two thousand three,
(24:35):
Price was shot and killed by an active member of
this outside crips gang. So you know, when you consider that,
if Serena feels like the dance step is far enough
removed from gang violence for you know, for her to
feel comfortable doing it, then really, who are we to
argue with her? Yeah? That's that's a good point, pretty compelling.
But you know, one thing I noticed while digging into
dance history is that dances often fall in and out
(24:58):
of favor over time, and they never really stay fixed.
I mean, they're kind of always evolving and may take
on new shades of meaning as different generations and cultures
kind of put their own spin on them. Yeah, I
know what you mean. And the example I always think
of is Capuira, Like is it a dance or martial art?
Is it Brazilian or is it African? Like the truth
(25:18):
is somewhere in the middle, because over the years, cap
Wire has been all of these things and more to
so many different people. Oh, that is definitely something I
feel like we should talk about. But before we get
to that, let's take one more quick break, Okay, Mango,
(25:45):
So give us some more background on Capira, because I
don't think it's an art form that a lot of
people know that much about, and it's kind of like
the precursor to break dancing, though, isn't it. So that
breakdancing connection. There's actually a whole kind of worms that
I'll get into in a minute. But yeah, on the surface,
the do practices do have a lot in common, like
the footwork, the upside down movements, the way the performers
(26:08):
interact with the ground, like, it's all pretty similar. But
while breaking had this pretty definitive start in the Bronx
during the late seventies, Capuarra's history is a little hazier.
So what we do know for sure is that capurera
was developed in Brazil by enslaved Africans, sometimes between the
fifteen hundreds and the eighteen hundreds. And as you might remember,
Brazil was a colony of Portugal for that three hundred
(26:29):
years span, and during that time and estimated four million
enslaved people were brought across the Atlantic to Brazil. The
majority were forced to work in gold and diamond mines
or in the country's vast sugar cane fields, but some
managed to escape inland and hide out in the rainforests
and some historians think that that's where Capuarrera got a start.
So over time, the theory is that these escaped Africans
(26:50):
were able to find each other and as they did,
they began to form these independent communities. It was rooted
in expressions of African culture, and capuara is thought to
be one of those expressions, like a form of defense
that relies on these rid, big movements to disarm and
confuse and ultimately defeat an opponent or I see so,
so the dance elements are are really kind of men
(27:12):
as a way to distract an opponent or throw them
off balance or something. So that's definitely one theory. There's
another theory that capuara emerged before the Africans escaped, and
that to hide this new form of fighting from the
slave masters, they started camouflaging it as a dance and
that way they could train for potential revolt right out
in the open. And if you go by this theory,
(27:33):
it also explains why instruments were later added to capuwarra.
I mean, what better way to complete this dance disguise
than by adding music to the mix? Yeah, and you
know it starts to make sense what you were talking
about before, with Capewra being really kind of morphed to
fit the needs of different people, different time periods. But
I do want to go back to that break dancing
connection though, because you know, I know, Capawarra made its
(27:55):
way stateside in the nineteen seventies and that was around
the time that you know, break dancers were getting started.
But with all the similarities that you mentioned, it feels
like there's got to be some kind of connection though,
right Well, I mean a lot of people think so, Actually,
do you remember this When we used to go for
hip hop shows at the Cat's Cradles, sometimes there'd be
a group of breakdancers and a group of Caprara enthusiasts
(28:18):
and the kind of dance off it was amazing. But
you know, you'd assume they're sort of linked in some
greater way, But I really couldn't find anything to support
the idea. And like you said, Caprara came to the
U s in the mid seventies, and that was largely
thanks to two veteran practitioners who started touring the country
and teaching the techniques at various colleges. But there doesn't
(28:39):
seem to be much, if any evidence of overlap between
capua and the earliest breakdancers, and instead most breakers will
actually tell you that they took their early moves from
kung fu movies more than anything else. But of course,
even if capuarra didn't give birth to break dancing, it's
safe to say that both practices have inspired each other
and the time since. Well, and besides that, I mean,
capwarra and break dancing or so both rooted in African traditions.
(29:02):
So even if they did develop centuries and thousands of
miles apart, I mean, maybe their connection is is less
like a parent and child and more like that of
maybe two distant cousins or something. Yeah, definitely like origins aside,
these are two forms of expression that definitely have a
lot in common. All Right, Well, I know we're running
out of time here, but I'd be remiss if I
(29:22):
didn't mention a milestone in dance history that I was
just reading about this week, because, as it turns out,
this year is actually the thirty fifth anniversary of Michael
Jackson's Moonwalk. Can you believe it's been that long? I
mean I can't, but you do know that the Moonwalk
is like way older than that, right, well, I said
it was the thirty fifth anniversary of Michael Jackson's moon,
(29:43):
not the first ever moonwalk. But while we're talking about that,
refresh my memory though, like who beat MJ to the
punch on this one? So there are more people than
I had remember. David Bowie did his own take on
the move during his nine tour back in the fifties.
Both Cab Callaway and Bill Bailey and did moonwalks in
their performances. And probably the earliest case I've heard of
(30:03):
is actually that famous French mim Marcel Marsio and uh,
he actually had this act in the forties called Walking
in the Wind where he would pretend to brace himself
against this imaginary wind, and so he would act like
he was struggling against the wind, and as he did this,
he would slide backwards. But the interesting thing about him
is that he was actually friends with Michael Jackson for decades,
(30:24):
and Jackson said multiple times that the mime's work had
this huge influence on his performance style. That's interesting. I mean,
Jackson was probably influenced by each of those performers in
in one way or another. But you know, from what
I've read, it actually looks like m J patterned this
moonwalk after these two break dancers that he'd seen on
an episode of Soul Train, And this was a few
(30:44):
years before all of this, and their names were Geron
Casper Candidate and Coolie Jackson. No relation here, And the
story goes that MJ remembered their performance and wound up
arranging a meeting with the men while he was prepping
for his big Motown special. Now this was in three
and so the guys taught them this backslide move and
(31:05):
Jackson practiced it until he had it down pad and
he wanted to debut this moonwalk during the Motown special,
And this was a very strategic move on his part.
So at the time, Michael had already released two solo albums,
but he wasn't completely out of the shadow of the
Jackson five, And in fact, the bulk of his performance
(31:25):
during the special was devoted to this Jackson five reunion
of sorts. But Michael only agreed to appear at all
because he was able to convince the producer to let
him do this solo performance and he wanted to do one,
especially of a non motown song, and the producer agrees
to this, and so Jackson ends up performing Billy Jean
(31:45):
on stage that night for a television audience of thirty
four million people. And so you know, of course you
think about this, how did Jackson ensure the performance was
a memorable one? Well, it was a few seconds of
sliding backwards across the stage and that did it. Well.
I mean, clearly it worked, and it's basically become his
signature move. Yeah, and crowds just ate it up. And
(32:07):
I'd read that even Freddish Stair apparently called Jackson after
the Motown performance to congratulate him. And the move was
a game changer for Jackson's career in the world of dance,
and it seems like everybody knew it, And of course
one of the drawbacks to that is that everybody then
tried to replicate the move themselves, and usually very unsuccessful.
(32:27):
You know what's funny that I've actually heard that Jackson's
pet chimpanzee Bubbles got pretty good at the Moonwalk, really,
which is way more than I could say. I feel
like the arch Deluxe is probably more my speed. Well,
I'm sure Tristan will teach it to you any time
you want. But in the meantime, though, I think there
are a few more dance moves that we haven't gotten
to yet. So what do you say we slip on
(32:49):
our dancing shoes and bust out a couple of quick
moves in the fact off definitely a well. Earlier this year,
New Orleans was the home to a revival of this
eight show called Tabasco, a Burlesque Opera. And yes it
(33:11):
is that Tabasco. So there's a conductor named Paul Moffrey
and he stumbled into this program for the old show
while doing some research on the history of New Orleans music. Now,
the opera is about this Irish traveler who gets lost
at sea and he ends up landing in Morocco and
is forced to become a chef for this military officer there. Now,
(33:31):
the military officer there happens to love spicy food, and
so in his effort to come up with just the
right dish for him, Tabasco sauce comes to the rescue. Now,
I had no idea that Tabasco had been around that long,
but it's apparently celebrating it's a hundred and fiftieth anniversary
this year. So back to this original performance back in
(33:54):
the Louisiana based company Tabasco. They actually agreed to underwrite
part of the cost of the show if they would
give out tiny bottles of the stuff at these performances
when it debuted in Boston, and it turns out the
show had a pretty good run across a bunch of
US cities, but they ran into some legal battles over
the use of the product and the kind of the
(34:15):
rights around the show, and so the show closed down
and it almost disappeared completely until Maffrey discovered it more
than a hundred years later. Wow. So, I know we've
talked about prison reform and unique prisons in previous episodes,
but there's one I don't think we talked about, and
that's Eohi Prison and Penal Farm in the Philippines. So
(34:36):
this is where inmates dance with and for tourists, and
the place sprawls over sixty four thousand acres and the
inmates pretty much moved freely across a tourists visit and
they stopped by the recreation center to see ten to
twenty inmates perform multiple songs, and then the tourists stick
around to check out and purchase various crafts the inmates
have made and it's definitely unlike any prison you'd find
(34:59):
in the stay. Yeah, I haven't heard of anything like that.
That's that's very interesting. Well, we couldn't do an episode
on Dances without covering the Chicken Dance. He had to
know this one is coming at some point, and it
turns out it was kind of name this by accident.
So the melody for the song was written more than
sixty years ago and was written by this Swiss musician
(35:20):
named Werner Thomas. Thomas used to make a living by
playing accordion at these various holiday resorts in Switzerland, and
as he came up with the melody, he gradually began
putting dance moves to it. But weirdly, the moves weren't
inspired by chickens but by skiers, which sounds a little
bit surprising, But many the motions of skiers flying down
(35:42):
these mountains there really reminded Thomas of different birds, and
so he started to put some of these motions into
a dance that they started to call dance Little Bird.
So how did it become the Chicken Dance? Well, it's
tough to say, but it may have something to do
with this October Fest celebration. That actually happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
(36:03):
back in nine. There was a German band there that
decided to play the song, and the organizers of the event,
I guess they were super excited about this song for
some reason. But they thought it would be fun to
find a costume to go along with the dance, and
the best thing they could find was a chicken suit
that a local TV station had, And so, of course
the rest is history. That is amazing. I feel embarrassed
(36:28):
that I didn't look up a chicken dance fact. Yeah,
that's so so. Back in the late twenties and early thirties,
a certain type of dance hall started popping up in
big cities like Chicago, New York City, and these were
dance halls where men could dance with hired women dancers
for ten cents a song. And by the early thirties
there were over a hundred of these so called taxi
dance halls in New York City. Something like fifty thousand
(36:50):
men would visit these each week. And this is sociologist
named Paul G. Cruscy. We know some of the lingo
in history, and that's how it's been preserved. So the
dances were often referred to as nickel hoppers since they
usually made half of the ten cents the men would pay.
And weirdly, the trends stuck around until the mid nineteen hundreds,
but that's when law enforcement began cracking down on things
(37:12):
like prostitution, mob activities and all of that stuff that
had been sort of associated with these dance halls. All right, Well,
recent studies have shown the benefits of dancing for Parkinson's
disease or for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, and in fact,
several studies have looked at this and they found that
dancing helps really on two fronts. Now. The first is
(37:32):
more on the physical side, where this rhythmic movement from
dancing can actually help reduce the motor control difficulties that
are often accompanied by Parkinson's, and the relief isn't necessarily
a media but over time it does seem to help
train the brain and the body for you know, more
fluid motion. And not surprisingly, the other major benefit of
(37:53):
dancing for those with Parkinson's is reducing some of that
social isolation that many of the patients often experience. And,
as one dance instructor put it, their mood changes within
a few minutes of being there. They're no longer patients,
but dance students. Well, speaking of dance classes. Back in
two thousand eleven, this nearly a forty story mall in Soul,
(38:15):
South Korea started shaking, and it did so for nearly
ten minutes. And the weird events caused this two day evacuation,
and of course this investigation, and you won't believe what
cost it, or maybe you will. It turns out that
a couple dozen middle aged people in a tybo class
started dancing to the power by the band The Snap
and you know the song it's like. So the investigation
(38:39):
revealed that it wasn't the weight of the people dancing,
it was just their rhythm. And as Professor Chong Lan
of den Cook University explained, quote, it just happens to
be that the vibration set up by the tybo coincided
with the residence frequency unique to the building. Wow, there
is no way to top that. And and and actually
the fact that Tristan is now out of his chair
(39:00):
doing some of his own tybo moves. I mean, this
is a total blowout. I'm gonna have to give you
today's trophy. Mango Thank you so much well, and thank
you guys for listening. We'd love to hear your great
dance stories or dance facts. You can always email those
two part Time Genius and How Stuff Works dot com
or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. But as always,
thanks so much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part
(39:36):
Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and
wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the
important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil
does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song
and does the MIXI mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does
the exact producer thing. Gay Blues years our lead researcher,
with support from the Research Army, including Austin Thompson, Nolan
Brown and Lucas Adams. And Eve Jeff Cook gets the
(39:58):
show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like
what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, and if you
really really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave
a good review for us. We did. We forget Jason Jason,
who
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