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By the 1960's a new dance fad
had started named the "Twist "
and the Peppermint
Lounge in NYC was to become famous, this started
many night clubs dropping the bands and hiring a Disc-Jockey.
Playboy had started a sexual revolution which was not yet realized
and the 'Pill' was gaining momentum. Many of these clubs would
follow the whiskey and Peppermint Lounge with some adding a touch
of burlesque such as the topless Batman-A-Go-Go
in Los Angeles whose dancers would dance in golden cages. Others
would have male and/or female erotic dancers dancing on pedestal
stages, in cages etc., sometimes scantly clothed, sometimes not.
One of the original and popular Los Angeles DJ's of the time was
Kenny
Wetzel who talked the owner of the Staircase nightclub
in Downey, California to hire him as a DJ, He became a major success
till he retired in 1998.
This led to many opportunities for everyone to cash in from dance
instructors to Advertising agencies. There were hundreds of songs
and dances being created to try and cash in, most were really
lame and went nowhere. In 1966, Smirnoff Vodka hired "Killer
Joe" Piro to create a new dance (The
Mule) for their new drink called none other than, u guessed
it 'the mule.' They hired Skitch Henderson to create a song by
the same name and Piro used the old Mule Walk step as a base,
added some stupid hand movements imitating the mules ears, added
a few turns. ... The Mule now lived (The dance was really,
really spastic.) However some of the dances like the Swim,
Watusi, Frug and Mashed Potato, etc. became very popular. However
there was something else brewing unknown while America was creating
new dances.
- In the Late 1960's, the disco
dance craze was not really apparent yet. Some Cuban dancers in
Florida where dancing a form of salsa and swing to the experimental
disco sounds in the late 1960's. About 1968 a new type of electronic
music (synthesizers) was making
an impact and a new music was being born. The Cubans and the new
music formed to create disco music ... a kind of hard hitting,
thumping continuous beat that could be mixed from one song to
another without stopping the music. By 1970, these couples would
start doing what was finally tagged as 'Disco
Swing' , the public would later become confused and
call it the Hustle, which was actually a line dance (Van McCoy,)
however the name stuck for the better. The discos were now getting
high tech and the money was being invested in fancier nightclubs.
The sexually free public was now comfortable with being a Playboy/girl
as well the 'Pill' being a normal thing, all was ready to let
loose.
- In walks Van
McCoy with his song "The
Hustle " which was released in 1975 with many
radio listeners now wondering what the Hustle was, (see hustle)
well they were going to find out. Now here comes Donna Summer's
new erotic sounding music and her sultry, sexy look didn't hurt
either which made the popularity of Disco become world wide. Young,
sexually free people were stepping out again dancing with a partner (s),
doing the social mixers called line dances (lines were from
the old folk
dances), however, people wanted to touch each other in
a big way and tired of the freestyle dances of the 60's, this
new 'touch dancing' fit the bill.
- By the mid 1970's the disco scene
was in full force with many Disco's opening and closing in almost
every city and town.The
most infamous Disco was Studio
54, an exuberant, sophisticated and sexually wild nightclub
in New York City. Then there was Chippendales, with their male
exotic dancers performing for the ladies only, with the public
let in after the heated show. In 1978John Travolta and the movie "Saturday
Night Fever ," along with a few others
would make the dance scene literally EXPLODE!. Everyone
now was aware of the disco scene... and this new form of partner
dancing. During this craze many forms of the Hustle came to be
such as the "Rope Hustle, Sling Hustle, Tango Hustle, West
Coast Hustle, Street Hustle and of course the Latin Hustles. These
dances were offshoot's of their originals, usually using the dances
trademark move. By 1978, Disco had reached its peak, all New York
declared a "National Disco
Week " in June of 1978 and London sponsors
held the World Disco Dance Championships
in the summer of 1978 as well. The word disco now had a new meaning...
Dance!
- Television would also jump on
the band wagon with such shows as Dance Fever, the Gong Show,
Soul Train and Star Search etc. and the public could now stay
home and watch the dancers 'Trip the Light Fantastic' but would
get the wrong impression as they would only see the competitive
side of the dance rather than the social side. Newspapers such
as the Los Angeles times would feature dancers such as Roy Madrid
hailing him as the new Fred Astaire on the 'Front Page' no less.
(Roy was also the un credited assistant choreographer to Denny
Terrio on Saturday Night Fever for the touch dancing scenes, Denny
only did the freestyle.) The Public would become truly saturated
and a new term "Disco Sucks' would become a common mantra
with the non dancing public. Unfortunately, the mass infiltration
of disco upon the public left many club owners not making ends
meet and the nightclubs would eventually close, with some almost
as quickly as they opened. The dances got a little too difficult
(Lifts/tricks) as well due to competitions on T.V. and eventually
became to competitive, difficult and fantastic for the average
Joe to walk in and do, all this was to make a splendid entrance
for the next explosion ...
'Urban Cowboy'
would give the death blow to disco dancing. "Urban Cowboy"
hit the scene in 1980 which gave the appearance as being rowdy
rather than sexual (it was both) and seemed to promise
a simpler, kinder, softer more wholesome, girl/guy next door singles
scene. The simpler "Texas
Two-Step " would make it easy for
the non dancers to become involved and was to become 'King of
the dances' for the non-dancing public throughout the eighties.
Many of the disco dancers switched to this new scene and with
them came some of the dances, only disguised as Country Western
(disco swing became rodeo/cowboy swing, bus top, etc).
However, country followed the Hustle dilemma and became too competitive,
as well as the Line dance explosion in the 1990's (i.e.: achy-breaky-heart)
dominating the dance floor and like the early disco days, too
many lame line dances being invented and taught, literally 1000's
(many to non country music) eventually gave Country Western
its final blow. Salsa was now the next partner dance craze.
- None-the-less, disco as a music,
a dance or a club had not died out completely, and probably never
will, it has just transformed with the times. It fits any society's
pocketbook and a society's want for the many varied artist's songs
which are made available only by the DJ's, unlike the bands who
usually don't know any other style of music except what they play
as well as charging extremely high fees to play a nightclub are
easily replaced by a DJ for a couple hundred dollars a night.
The dances, mainly the couples dance today known as the Hustle,
is still being danced by a hand full of people, mainly in New
York, San Francisco, Seattle, Philly and Los Angeles. The main
disco dance styles today are the faster and more energetic L.A.
Hustle, the simpler Street or Sling Hustle, and the slower, smoother
New York Hustle.
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