We end our week of disco delights with one more Hustle. Disco embraced its (many) critics’ complaints that musicians — or, more directly, big record companies seeking big profit — engineered the genre for mass-market appeal. Proponents responded by promoting disco as a warm and welcoming music, simple and inviting by design so everyone could participate. Whatever side of this meta-music scuffle you take, all can agree that disco dancing gave everyone, of every imaginable skill level, the opportunity to shake their booties. As this video from the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis proves beyond all doubt, everyone can learn to disco dance.
Tag Archives | The Hustle
Prison Hustle
Van McCoy’s 1975 disco mega-hit “The Hustle” empowered dancers around the world to “get in line’ — line dances with simple moves gave everyone the chance to become disco stars. You don’t even need to wear snazzy nightclub clothes to disco dance! Proof in point — “this video” of prisoners in the Phillippines shows us how it’s done.
Do the Hustle
Disco music was nothing without dance, and disco dancing was fantastic. The music’s multiple layers of horns, keyboards, cascading background vocals and futuristic sound effects conspired with the ever-flashing lights on the nightclub floor to make dancers soar. The best disco dancing was acrobatic and inventive; the best dancers improvised and impressed, weaving in moves from almost every genre from breakdancing to salsa to swing. But disco dancing was also inclusive. Group dancing became one of the most energizing features of the disco scene. Dancers would line up in rows and follow well-known routines that featured much jumping, twisting, swaying of hips and whole a lot of pointing to the ceiling. You don’t have to be John Travolta — or even Van McCoy — to “Do the Hustle.”
