Get ready to boogie down memory lane as we explore the most iconic moves that got people grooving on dance floors across America! From disco fever to punk rock energy, these signature steps defined a generation. Whether you were doing The Robot or getting down with The Hustle, these moves shaped dance culture forever.
00:09And today, we're counting down our picks for the funkiest, grooviest, and most popular moves that 70s cats laid out on that dance floor.
00:16One more clap!
00:18Bust out, please!
00:24Number 10. The Funky Chicken.
00:26The word funky will probably come up a lot during our conversation, because, well, the 70s was a very funky decade.
00:35How funky is your chicken? Flap your wings!
00:38I want them harder!
00:39Come on, everybody!
00:41This was seen within the era's fashion, music, and yes, moves that folks were doing on the dance floor.
00:47The Funky Chicken was derived from a Rufus Thomas tune called, you guessed it, Do the Funky Chicken, and looked exactly like what's implied by the description.
00:55Your chicken's warmed up already, so we're going to get it to flap its wings.
01:00So flap away with your arms.
01:04And at the same time, if you want to add some feet, it's your chicken kicking up its feet as it's flapping its wings.
01:10Dancers would flap their arms and kick their legs, imitating a barnyard chicken in a move probably descended from an earlier dance, just called the chicken.
01:18Still, it was so silly and fun to do, that the Funky Chicken has lived on in the hazy memories of those who were there back in the day.
01:33Number 9. The Nutbush.
01:35The phrase decade-defining definitely fits with regard to the musical career of Ike and Tina Turner during the 1970s.
01:41The Nutbush was a dance that arose in the wake of this pair's success, a group effort that involved getting lots of people together in a square.
01:55This was a dance tied to the Turner song, Nutbush City Limits, although its origins have also been tethered to the Madison dance craze of the 50s and 60s.
02:03It's a relatively simple but fun number, designed to mimic the energetic moves of Ike and Tina's backup dancers, the Ikeettes.
02:17The Nutbush may not be performed much today, but its time in the spotlight helps underline the importance of Tina and Ike's legacy during the 70s.
02:25You're going to church on Sunday, they call it Nutbush, wow, Nutbush.
02:33Number 8. Skanking.
02:35The origins of skanking may date back to the reggae dance halls of Jamaica during the 1950s and 60s,
02:40but the dawning of punk rock in the 70s exposed this style of dance to a whole new audience.
02:45Ska punk and two-tone groups such as The Specials, Madness and The Beat helped popularize this dance that often features swinging arms and running around,
03:00either in place or in a circular motion.
03:02The two-step skanking found within ska punk music is often seen as being more aggressive than its Jamaican predecessors.
03:15However, skanking also served as an important connecting bridge between this era of punk and heavier hardcore music that would emerge during the 1980s.
03:34Number 7. The Robot.
03:36One of the great things about dance is how certain moves ebb and flow between their usage.
03:41Why don't you try something else? I suggest robot dancing.
03:45Mimes have been seen performing roboting moves as far back as the 1920s,
03:56while the dance we know now as the robot started in the 60s, but became popular in the 70s.
04:02Why, you may ask? Michael Jackson, that's why.
04:05They say, why, why, none of that is human nature.
04:11The King of Pop blew minds with a lot of dance moves over the years,
04:15but his adoption of the robot occurred when MJ was still a part of the Jackson 5.
04:20Performances of their song Dancing Machine saw Jackson take what was old and essentially make it new again,
04:25driving audiences wild with his fancy footwork.
04:28Number 6. Pogoing.
04:37Ask any headbanger or hardcore kid today about all of the varied styles of moshing,
04:42aka slam dancing, and you'll probably get tons of different answers.
04:46What happens is, if you do the pogo for half an hour, which without a stick is done like this,
04:51you know, you just jump up and down, but you have to sort of, you know, arch your back and throw your head around.
04:56That said, pogoing was sort of the precursor to all of this sort of energetic dancing at rock concerts,
05:02and was centered on Britain's punk movement of the 1970s.
05:05Artists such as the Sex Pistols would see their fans going crazy in the audience,
05:10jumping up and down with uncontrolled movements to the music's aggressive beat.
05:13That band's doomed bassist, Sid Vicious, even claimed to have invented the dance,
05:24helping cement the Pistols' legacy as true trailblazers.
05:27I wanna be, and I can't.
05:35Number 5. The Bus Stop.
05:37This is a dance that goes by many different names, from the Roach, to the Walk, to the L.A. Hustle.
05:43So we can get down like, uh, we've done before.
05:47Name of my dance called the Bus Stop.
05:51It's also yet another popular form of line dancing,
05:54one that gained particular popularity in West Coast discos during the summer of 1975.
05:59Fast forward to a year later, and the L.A. Hustle officially crossed over the continental United States to New York,
06:05becoming known as the Bus Stop.
06:07Bus Stop, please!
06:08It's not exactly recommended to novice dancers,
06:17since the Bus Stop does incorporate a complex series of moves.
06:21This is more of a dance that movie fans might be used to seeing in movies like Saturday Night Fever,
06:25where couples dressed to the nines were kicking up their heels.
06:28Number 4. The Bump.
06:38The art of dance can be a lot of things, from personal self-expression to protest.
06:42It could be argued, however, that most commercial dances of the 1970s were concerned with one thing, and one thing only.
06:57Sex.
06:58The Bump is pretty much all about personal contact between couples.
07:02I ain't gonna bump with you. I don't feel like getting down. Don't feel like getting down.
07:08It doesn't matter if one is bumping hips, rear ends, or something else.
07:12The Bump wanted dance floor pairings to get close.
07:15Basically, The Bump walked so grinding and twerking could run,
07:18working essentially as dance floor foreplay towards what could potentially be a walk of shame the following morning.
07:24There was a dance called The Bump before your time, and I excelled at it.
07:31Number 3. Kung Fu Fighting.
07:33Everybody was kung fu fighting.
07:37Those kids were fast as lightning.
07:41Surely there's no way that everybody was kung fu fighting.
07:45Things would get dangerous real quick.
07:47But with the wave of Hong Kong martial arts films gaining popularity in the United States in the 70s,
07:52the odds that you'd be karate chopped on the dance floor were at an all-time high.
07:56Carl Douglas' 1974 song Kung Fu Fighting combined the disco craze of the time with a set of clear movement instructions.
08:03And boy, oh boy, did he have a hit.
08:13In 1975, it was awarded for being the most profitable song on jukeboxes across the nation.
08:19You could imagine hearing those intro notes out at the club.
08:22And ducking for cover out of fear of being kicked as fast as lightning.
08:33Number 2. Line dancing.
08:36Country music may have a lock upon a lot of the line dancing today,
08:39but this style of expression harkens back a lot further than TikTok.
08:43Line dancing comes from a long history of folk performances and group outings,
08:55while the 70s saw television programs like Soul Train bringing line dancing into everybody's living room.
09:00One of the coolest things about line dancing is that feeling of belonging,
09:12mimicking learned steps and watching friends and family do the same.
09:15Meanwhile, classic country line dances such as the Walkin' Wazzy also showed up during this era,
09:21filling up honky-tonks every Saturday night.
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09:47Number 1. The Hustle.
09:49There are actually a lot of dances that fall under the Hustle umbrella.
09:53Why don't we take a little study break?
09:56Do the hustle!
09:57Keep it down!
09:59Still some commonalities remain between such variations as the Latin strut,
10:03New York Hustle, or Tango Hustle.
10:05They were extremely popular during the 1970s.
10:09Van McCoy and his Soul City Symphony even released a smash hit single celebrating this dance craze,
10:21which proved to be as synonymous with the 70s as John Travolta's Disco Finger.
10:26It's important not to marginalize disco's dominance during this era, however,
10:30since many historians have pointed to the importance of how dance clubs welcomed people from all walks of life into their doors.
