Twist (dance)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the song, see The Twist (song).
The Twist was a rock and roll dance popular in the early 1960s named after the song that originated it, The Twist. It was the first major international rock and roll dance style in which the couples did not have to touch each other while dancing.
It was arguably the product of a logical progression of popular hip-swiveling activities, from swing dances such as the Lindy, to the famous pelvic moves of Elvis Presley and other 1950s rock-and-roll stars, and even the late-1950s toy fad, the Hula Hoop.
The dance was first popularized by Chubby Checker in 1960 with a hit cover of the 1959 B-side and minor hit "The Twist" written by Hank Ballard. Checker's single became a smash hit, reaching #1 on the US charts. The song set a record, being the only single to reach #1 in two different chart runs (as it reached #1 in 1960, and then resurfaced, reaching #1 again in 1962).
Faced with explaining to the youthful audience how to do the dance, a member of Checker's entourage came up with the following description:
- "It's like putting out a cigarette with both feet, and wiping your bottom with a towel, to the beat of the music."
In 1961, at the height of the Twist craze, patrons at New York's hot Peppermint Lounge on West 45th Street were twisting to the music of the house band, a local group from Jersey, Joey Dee and the Starliters. Their house song, "Peppermint Twist (Part 1)," became the number one song in the United States for three weeks in January 1962. Sailors and hookers, hipsters and weekending Yalies danced alongside New York's social elite, including the Duke of Windsor, at the legendary Peppermint Lounge.
In Latin America, the Twist craze was sparked in the 1960-62 period not by recordings by Checker or Ballard, but by Bill Haley & His Comets. Their recordings of "The Spanish Twist" and "Florida Twist" were major successes, particularly in Mexico, and the band were given the credit for starting the dance craze. Haley, in interviews at the time, was always quick to give credit to Checker and Ballard. Coincidentally, Checker appeared in two musicals that took their titles from the two films Haley made in the 1950s (the Checker films had the same producer): Twist Around the Clock (after Rock Around the Clock) and Don't Knock the Twist (after Don't Knock the Rock).
The dance resurfaced for a time in 1988, as a result of a rap version of the song recorded by The Fat Boys with Checker's participation.
[edit] Cultural References
In 1962, Dell Comics produced a comic called "The Twist" that fictionalized the Peppermint Lounge dance craze.
In 1993, a film by Ron Mann called Twist was produced which was a documentary about the Twist craze.
In the MMORPG World of Warcraft game, druids will perform "The Twist" in Tree of Life when given the "/dance" command.
In Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction, John Travolta and Uma Thurman dance The Twist to Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell" as part of the Jack Rabbit Slim's Twist Contest.
