Featured dancer: Ann Miller - Fastest tap in the West!

Tap-dancer Ann Miller was a Hollywood musical staple in the 1940s and 1950s. Born in Texas, she was discovered by Lucille Ball at age 13. Her agent claimed Miller could produce 500 taps per minute. That may have been a slight exaggeration, but whatever the true figure, the girl could sure tap FAST!

(She also invented pantyhose! Who knew?!)

Here she is performing "Too darn Hot" in "Kiss me Kate" - 1953:

"Shakin' the Blues Away" from "Easter Parade" - 1948 (now THIS is FAST!):

And from "Deep in My Heart" - 1954 -- a tap-Charleston!:

More on Ann Miller @ Turner Classic Movies.

Tango Finlandia!

Finnish Tango demo:

Finnish Tango in TURKU:

Finnish Tango(?) in rainstorm:

"The Tango and the Finnish Soul"

Tangomarkkinat (Annual Tango Festival)

Saturday night at the hop - The Lindy Hop

Hellzapoppin'! Here are the utterly amazing Whitey's Lindy Hoppers from 1941 (dancing starts around 2:40)!:

And here are some contemporary cats recreatin' that frenetic Hellzapoppin' mood (from the Basie Centennial, New York City, 2004). Check out several of the couples dancing slo-mo toward the end of the second video (around 5:50)!:

More about the Lindy Hop here.

McCain Vs. Obama Dance-Off

Dance in art - Bruegel's 'The Peasant Dance'

Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Renaissance painter from the Netherlands who is known for his paintings of peasants and landscapes. In 'The Peasant Dance', painted in 1568, we see a jolly group of ordinary folk enjoying a real 'knees-up' (as the Brits would say)! The beer's a-flowin', there's a piper playing some (no doubt) lively tunes, and we can see three couples kicking their heels up to the music.

Now that's what I call a party!

Balinese Legong

There are many, amazing types of Balinese dance. Most are religious in nature and are related to the practice of Hinduism on Bali. Some dances are considered sacred, while others are more 'secular'.

The Legong is a 'secular' dance performed for entertainment purposes. It tells a story and is traditionally danced by two pre-pubescent (pure) girls. Nowadays, with all the tourism to Bali, many of the traditional dances are performed by adults.

Here is an example of a young girl -- a fantastic dancer! -- performing a Legong at a royal palace:

Here is a full Legong (in three parts) called Legod Bawa performed by two superb dancers. This dance tells the story of "the struggle between the gods Vishnu and Brahma in their struggle to find Shiva's 'Lingga'":

Dance craze - The Hokey Pokey!

You put your left leg in
You put your left leg out
You put your left leg in
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around
That's what it's all about...!

Ok. I admit it. I've done my fair share of Hokey Pokies -- mostly at weddings when in an advanced state of inebriation (makes for more of a challenge that way!). It usually comes right after the Birdie Dance and right before the Bunny Hop -- although sometimes it can be hard to tell them apart because EVERYone's so inebriated! ;-)

Apparently there's some dispute over who started the Hokey Pokey craze (or Hokey Cokey if you're British -- or Hokey Tokey if you're a Kiwi!) -- probably because no one wants to take the blame for this particular craze.

Still, when all is said and done, I do have a special fondness in my heart for the Hokey Pokey -- it was probably one of the first "real" dances I learned. So, I was glad to find that when I googled "Hokey Pokey" that there are 2,750 Hokey Pokey videos out there! This dance craze is still alive and well!

Here's a fairly standard Hokey Pokey -- with a slight twist:

And here's a FUNKy Hokey Pokey!:

The Hokey Pokey on roller skates!:

The Hokey Pokey craze reaches China:

And, the cutest Hokey Pokey you've ever seen!:

From ICHC:

(see more crazy cat pics)

Featured dancer: Vladimir Vasiliev - 'God of the Dance'

Russian premier danseur, Vladimir Vasiliev, performed with the Bolshoi Ballet starting in 1958. He later choreographed for the Bolshoi and eventually became its director (until he was dismissed by Vladimir Putin in 2000).

He has been described as 'God of the dance' -- and he really set the standard for all danseurs who were to follow him.

Here are some excerpts of Vasiliev performing Don Quixote in 1960. The ballerina is Ekaterina Maximova (who is also Vasiliev's wife):

Here they are again in Don Quixote from 1972:

DON QUIXOTE - GRAND PD2 (Maximova-Vasiliev, 1972) @ Yahoo! Video

Whoever said white men can't jump?! ;-)

Vasiliev is most well known for his role of 'Spartacus'. Two scenes from that ballet can be viewed here and here [embed not available]. What a stunning performance!

Everybody Dance Now!

From 1991, the video for C+C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" for which Jamale Graves won MTV's Best Choreography in a Video (followed by "Things That Make You Go Hmmm...").

• C+C Music Factory
• New Music

Back in the day, Jamale described hip-hop as:

The dance of young people. It's the dance of the street combined with some real serious roots of ethnic dance, combined with the movement of Katherine Dunham -- with a funky thing -- with the kids going on and what they feel -- along with rap music. Hip-hop!

Hip-hop includes many styles, of course, from breaking to popping, locking and krumping and house dance. What Jamale described above and used in his choreography for "Gonna Make You Sweat" is probably more hip-hop new style than anything else since almost all of the dancing is upright.

Here's how hip-hop new style is lookin' in this century -- some free styling @ Juste Debout 2005:

While I've got the 90s on my mind -- here's the video for MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This". Spandex and parachute pants -- what would the 90s have been without 'em?! Break it down!: