1.

Jive
Jive, first popular in the 1940's, is a lively, fast-paced and uninhibited variation of the jitterbug. Many of its
basic patterns are similar to those of the East Coast swing. Musicians like Cab Calloway and Glenn Miller were
playing swing music appropriate for this type of dancing. Eventually, the dance traveled across the United
States and Europe. Jive is a triple rhythm swing dance that incorporate syncopations, it also incorporate a
pulse or bounce that is created by flexing and straightening the knees and ankles. The U.S. soldiers during the
war danced the Jive in Europe and it caught on as a major trend there, especially among the younger
generations. It became an official international competition Latin dance form in the year 1968. The dance is
simple and jovial, and it is a favorite in many American competitions and exhibitions today.

2. Salsa
This is a truly great club dance, one that is fun, accessible, sexy, and constantly evolving as new generations
come to the Salsa clubs. Salsa as a dance style began in New York in the Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican
dance clubs in the 1960’s and 1970’s, though most agree that Salsa clearly had its earliest origins in Cuban
Son. Both the music and the dance continue to evolve in the Salsa clubs of New York, California, Texas, and
beyond. Salsa music is Afro-Caribbean in its beginnings, though it has been adapted by Latin jazz musicians to
meet the tastes of the current popular music, with contemporary pop, rock, and R&B also added to the mix.
Salsa music features a complex clave driven rhythm with exuberant horns and percussion sections with cow
bells and timbales as well as a powerful vocalist. Salsa dancing features break steps, spins, showy
performance moves and drops, and solo moves called “Shines,” a term borrowed from the world of tap
dancing.

3. Lindy Hop
An American dance which was born in the African-American communities in Harlem, New York City, in 1928
and has evolved since then. The Lindy Hop grew in popularity during the swing era of the 1930s and
eventually became a global phenomenon, spurring the creation of new swing dance forms as early as the
1940s. Lindy was a fusion of many dances that preceded it or were popular during its development but is
mainly based on jazz, tap, breakaway, and Charleston. The Lindy Hop is considered a cultural phenomenon
that broke through the race barrier when segregation was still the norm. Modern dancers, interested in
cultural history are piecing together the roots of Lindy through the tales and film footage of the original
dancers. The common understanding among dancers and historians is that Lindy Hop spread to the United
Kingdom during World War II.

4. Cha Cha Cha

This is a fun, flirty dance that grew out of the Cuban Mambo and became immensely popular in the United
States in the 1950’s. It consists of triple chasse steps and rock steps.
 Cha Cha Cha has a modified Cuban Motion hip action, because of the speed. This is an exuberant dance
that will get your heart pumping and put a smile on your face.
Cha Cha Cha originated in Cuba and evolved from a slow version of Mambo called “Triple Mambo” or
Mambo with guiro rhythm. This musical rhythm inspired dancers to dance a hip syncopation to the
forward and back breaks of a mambo which late evolved to a triple step. Mambo evolved from a fusion of
danzon, son and American jazz. Danzon has its origins from Europe (chamber music) and African/Haitian
drum rhythms. Enrique Jorrin, a Cuban Violinist created the first cha cha song in 1948. He named it after
the shuffling sound the dancers shoes made when they dance to this type of music. In 1952, an English
dance teacher Pierre Lavelle visited Cuba and saw dancers dancing this triple step to slow rumba and
mambo music. On his return to Britain, he taught this as a separate dance and it has since evolved to
Ballroom Cha Cha Cha. It was introduced to the US in 1954 which replaced mambo as the latest dance
craze. After its introduction to the US, the traditional violins and flutes were exchanged with big band
instruments such as trumpets, trombones and saxophones.

5. Watusi
The Watusi was a real subtle Twist dance variation and was often mixed in with the Twist. It was one of the
most popular dance crazes of the 1960s in the United States. "Watusi" is a former name for the Tutsi people
of Africa, whose traditions include spectacular dances. The naming of the American dance may have been
inspired, in particular, by a scene in the 1950 film King Solomon's Mines which featured Tutsi dancers, or by its
sequel Watusi. The Watusi used the arms much more that the hips. The arms would raise and lower from one
side to the other every two beats of music with a slight twist of the torso rather than the hips. Feet were
usually apart and would one leg and move it forward and backward to the beat of the music one leg and move
it forward and / or backwards to the beats of the music or occasionally pointing it to the side. The dance,
which became popular in the American surf/beach sub-culture of the 1960s, may be enhanced if one imagines
that one's feet are on sand.

6. Harlem Shuffle
The Harlem Shuffle is a dance that has taken various forms through the years. One is as a line dance,
consisting of around 25 steps. Another form is a simple two-step followed by a shoulder-brushing motion with
the back of the opposite hand. The name itself stems from the links this dance had with the New York area of
Harlem during the Harlem renaissance, favoured by African-Americans.

7. Boogie Woogie
This form of swing dance is known by many different names such as the Boogie Woogie or the Boogie dance.
In the United States, it is called the East Coast swing and the ‘Boogie Woogie’ is the commonly accepted name
that is used in Europe. Originally, the dance was known as “barrelhouse” dancing. What we know today as the
“boogie woogie” would have been considered as “rock ‘n’ roll” dancing in the 1950’s. However, since “rock ‘n’
roll” already had its own style of dance, boogie- woogie began to be danced to fast-paced, piano boogie-
woogie music and therefore it received its resultant label and name. There are a few misconceptions regarding
the “boogie-woogie” dance. As a dance style, Boogie Woogie encompassed any kind of swing dancing done
fast and was also called "Jump Swing." The Boogie Woogie was usually danced to blues and Boogie Woogie
music with fast tempos. This type of fast dancing included jumps, hops, stomping, and even flying feet, all
done at considerable speed.Some usually confuse it with the “lindy-hop”- a dance style that is shares some
similarity with. However, this distinct form of swing dance has its very own distinguishable steps. Although
similar, it cannot be interchangeable with the lindy-hop. Another misconception is that the “boogie dance”,
being a type of swing dance, must be danced to fast-paced or rockabilly songs only. This is not true since it is
possible for the dance to be adapted to slow songs.

8. The Twist
The Twist, made famous by Chubby Checker, took its first step in 1960. The inspiration for this iconic dance
can be traced back as far as the 1890s which came from an African American plantation dance called
“wringing and twisting”. When trying to teach the dance to the audience, a member of Checker’s entourage
came up with this description "It's like putting out a cigarette with both feet, and wiping your bottom with a
towel, to the beat of the music." The dance is consisted of revolving their hips in quick, half-circle jerks, so
their pelvic regions were heaving in time to the music. The song and dance became a national fad, spinning off
countless twist records for Checker and others

9. Locomotion
“The Loco-Motion” is one of the prime examples of a dance-song hit, solely written to accompany a new
dance. “The Loco-Motion”, recorded by pop singer, Little Eva, taught a whole new dance to a generation of
teens. The dance itself was a modified line dance in which participants formed a single-file ‘train’ that snaked
through the dance floor. This dance is unique among famous dances in the sixties in being a line dance.
Dancers take instruction from the song, performing hip swings and jumps, among other steps.

10. Sock Hops

One of the places that rock and roll dancing developed was at the local sock hop. The name was given
because dances were often held in the local school gyms. Since hard-soled shoes weren't allowed to be worn
on the gym's varnished wooden floors, the dancers had to remove their shoes and dance in their shoes. Thus
the term became synonymous with record hops and was widely used for any of the 50s rock and roll dance
parties. It was here that allowed the creation, observation and practice dances. It is also why in their earliest
forms dances were highly regionalized.
11. Madison Line Dance
The most intricate of the fifties choreographed group dances was the Madison. It is generally agreed that the
Madison originated with Midwestern blacks and was appropriated by white teens nationwide.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Madison line dance gained great popularity. A simple-to-follow dance
line and steps that were called for the dancers made it a huge success. The Madison craze spawned several
recordings of songs specifically made for the dance with Al Brown's "The Madison" and Ray Bryant's "Madison
Time" competing neck in neck on Billboard's Top 40. It was so popular that in 1988 the movie Hairspray
featured the dance, and it has become one of those recurring features in movies and series depicting 1950s
popular dances.
The Madison is done in parallel, horizontal lines with everyone facing forward. Done to music with a 4/4 meter
it consists of a six count basic step that is interspersed with idiosyncratically variations that are performed in
response to the caller. The basic step includes six distinct movements, each done on one beat of the music a
touch of the left foot as it reaches diagonally across the right, a touch of the left foot out to the left side,
another touch of the left foot diagonally across the right, a step forward on the left on the left touch, a touch
of the right foot directly next to the left and a backward step on the right. Hand claps or finger snaps are
sometimes added on the fifth count.

12. The Bop

The Bop dance style derives from the Jitterbug and East Coast Swing in the 1950s, but it is not to be confused
with the Bop a Lindy -based partner dance that was done by all ages in the black community started in the
40s. The 'Bop' term actually comes from Be-Bop, those fabulous jazzy tunes from the '40s; however, it was
not danced to Be-bop but too much faster rockabilly, and rock 'n' roll songs of the era like those of Gene
Vincent.
The Bop was the first rock and roll dance introduced on American Bandstand in the summer of 1957 by a
visiting teenagers from California. The Bop used many of the same moves as swing, including partners moving
around each other, but was usually done with almost no touching and much, much faster. The Bop's more
carefree, Charleston jumpy-like moves and independent dance style also encouraged dancers to go solo.
Dancing the bop entailed jumping up and down as if on a pogo stick and grinding your heels into the floor
each time you landed. It's done with a partner but without holding hands. The bop was a dance from southern
California that was being done gene Vincent's Be-Bop-A-Lula
The Philly Bop consisted of a basic jitterbug like step with a breakaway that allowed the partners to improvise
steps. The partners stayed together musically by maintaining the rhythm and basic step. As the dance went on
there were transitions back and forth between the basic step and the improvisational breakaways. Hence this
dance was called the Bop.
13. Mashed Potato
The Mashed Potato is a dance move which was a popular dance craze of 1962. The dance move and mashed
potato song was first made famous by James Brown in 1959 and used in his concerts regularly. It was also
danced to songs such as Dee Dee Sharp's "Mashed Potato Time". The move vaguely resembles that of the
twist. The dance move begins by stepping backward with one foot with that heel tilted inward. The foot is
positioned slightly behind the other (stationary) foot. With the weight on the ball of the starting foot, the heel
is then swiveled outward. The same process is repeated with the other foot: step back and behind with heel
inward, pivot heel out, and so on. The pattern is continued for as many repetitions as desired. The step may
be incorporated in various dances either as a separate routine or as a styling of standard steps.

14. Hitch Hike

While doing the hip motions of the frug, hold you right hand in a fist with thumb extended, as if you are hitch-
hiking. Move your thumb to the right for three counts. Clap your hands to the right on the fourth count. Switch
hands and move your thumb to the left for three counts. Clap your hands, this time to the left, on the fourth
count. Marvin Gaye’s 1963 hit, “Hitch Hike,” launched a sixties dance craze by the same name. The dance was
simple enough for even the most uncoordinated dancer. Dancers simply mimicked the move of hitchhikers by
waving their left thumb three times over their left shoulder, pointing to the left, then switching sides and doing
the same thing with their right thumb. In between, there were a few hand claps. Marvin Gaye didn’t have a
monopoly on the “Hitch Hike.” Vanity Fare released a 1969 hit called “Hitchin’ a Ride.”

15. The Jerk

“The Jerk” was a 1960s dance that is still popular today. It has, in fact, found a home in hip-hop dancing. The
name of the dance comes from the jerky motion of the hands when the dancer swings his or her arms. Finger
snapping is a common addition to the dance. The Larks released a song, “The Jerk” in 1964 and it was quickly
followed by a series of other jerky hits. The arms move and hands move as if conducting. The wrists cross in
front of the chest and then sweep out in time, or at half time, with the music. The hands are up at face level.
On count 1, the outward sweep, the hands are quickly pushed out, giving the jerky motion. For a little more
style, the fingers may be snapped on the two outward movements—the first and third counts of the hand
motion. The pelvis is tilted forward and backward.

16. The Swim

Bobby Freeman’s 1964 tune, “C’mon and Swim,” inspired a dance that combined elements of dancing with
elements of swimming. “The Swim” was basically swimming on the dance floor. To do the “Swim,” you need
only swing your arms and shoulders in an alternating pattern to the beat of the music. Toss in a few hip sways
and you’ll have it down. Just to switch things up a bit, dancers could mimic a treading water motion with both
arms out to their sides or the ‘I’m drowning’ nose plug and one arm sink to the floor.