10 Questions about So You Think You Know Dance? | Humanities

Answer: Gangnam

South Korean Park Jae-Sang or PSY popularized "Gangnam Style", the lead single from his 2012 album "Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1". It became the first YOUTube video to reach one billion viewers. Psy was awarded multiple Guinness World Records including: Most viewed video on line, and Most 'liked' video on line.
Psy is considered the first K-pop artist to breakthrough into the Western music industry. He was once described by Chelsea Handler as "Korea's Ricky Martin".

Saltarello is a lively Italian dance. Matachin is a Spanish ritualized sword dance. Moresco is a Moorish dance.

Answer: mambo

The mambo is a Cuban dance resembling the cha-cha. "Mambo #5" was from the album "A Little Bit of Mambo". The song helped the album go platinum in over ten countries. "Mambo #5" reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 2, 1999. Anyone recall "A little Monica in my life"?... and don't forget Erica, Rita, Tina, Sandra, Mary and Jessica!

The samba is an African dance of Brazilian origin.
The rumba is a Cuban dance with pronounced hip movements.
The sarabande is a stately Spanish Baroque court dance.

Answer: macarena

"Macarena" is a Spanish dance song by Los Del Rio about a girl named Macarena, from the 1994 album "A mi me gusta". It became an international hit in the mid 1990s, and in 2002 VH-1 ranked it as the "Greatest One-Hit Wonder of All Time"; it also ranked #1 on Billboard's All Time Latin Songs. Los Del Rio, also known as the Del Rios, are a Spanish duo who formed in 1962. Talk about patience - they waited 34 years for a successful hit! But I'm sure it was worth it because everybody was doing the "Macarena", even at baseball games and weddings!

Answer: Minuet

The minuet was popular especially in the 18th century, as the men with their wigs and the women with their fancy gowns gracefully glided across the floor. So you think you don't know any minuets? How about Bach's famous Minuet in G minor, written for the harpsichord. Actually, it was thought to have been written by Johann Sebastian Bach in the mid 18th century; however, since 1970 it has been universally attributed to Christian Petzold (if ever there was a trivia question waiting to be asked, this is it). You may know the piece as "A Lover's Concerto" by The Toys in 1965 and by the Supremes a year later.

Then there's Boccherini's "Minuet" featured in the movie "The Ladykillers".

Answer: Lambada

The Lambada ("Llorando se fue") is a sensual bump-and-grind dance with a powerful driving beat which originated in Para, Brazil. In 1989 Kaoma released the song on an album called "Worldbeat", with an instrumental version as well. In order to capitalize on the popularity of the dance craze, two movies about the Lambada were launched...the only problem with that was that they both came out on the same day, i.e., March 16, 1990.

There was "The Forbidden Dance" about an Amazon princess (no, not Wonder Woman) who goes to Los Angeles, California to try to save the rain forest by doing the Lambada (really!), and the film "Lambada", equally lame!

Answer: Watusi

The Watusi was the second most popular dance craze of the 1960s after, of course, The Twist. In 1962, the singing group called The Orlons put out a song called "Wah Watusi". Are you ready for the lyrics? Here they are: "Wah, wah, a-Watusi./C'mon and take a chance,/And get a-with this dance./Wah, wah, a-Watusi./Oh, baby, it's the dance,/Made a-for romance;" it's followed by "Shoo-bop, shoo-bop".

Heard enough? Anyway, back to the dance. The Watusi was a solo dance which actually took up no more room on the dance floor than the space of your body because you stood in one spot with your knees bent and just flailed your arms to the music. Ah, those were the glorious 1960s!

Answer: The Hustle

The Hustle was a dance which developed from the 1975 Van McCoy hit "The Hustle". The Hustle was an energetic disco dance derived from swing elements. It could be danced with a partner (wearing bell bottoms and platform shoes) or as a line dance, with the steps being danced in unison.

The Wop is a hip-hop dance which has been around since the 1980s, but experienced a resurgence in 2010 after J. Dash's record ft. Flo Rida: "Ladies take it back throw it back to the front...". The Biz dance, by Biz Markie, depends on "how hard you snap and jerk on the down move". The Humpty Dance is from a 1990 song by Digital Underground: "Come on and do the Humpty Hump".

Answer: Line Dancing

Line dancing may have started in country-western dance bars, but this type of choreographed dancing has become popular with many music styles including swing, disco, rock and roll, and R&B. You don't need a partner; you just stand in line, sometimes facing another line, and perform the predetermined steps. There is no contact made with the other dancers.

Some of the many notable line dances include "The Chicken Dance", "The Hora", "The Hoedown Throwdown" and the "Hokey Pokey". Another example would be "The Lord of the Dance" Michael Flatley and his "Riverdance" from the 1990s.

Answer: Apache

An Apache dance was taken from the name of the Parisian underworld at the beginning of the 20th century. This dance was featured in "Slaughter on 10th Avenue" from the 1948 Rodgers and Hart film "Words and Music". It was known as the first "dance noir", and was superbly danced by Vera-Ellen and Gene Kelly.

The Can-Can was a popular music hall dance in the 1840s.
The Charleston was a big dance craze in the 'Roaring Twenties".
The Big Apple was a swing dance which became popular around 1937.

Answer: Argentina

The tango, often called "The Dance of Love", originated at the end of the 19th century on the shores of the Rio de la Plata in South America, in the port city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and later in Montevideo, Uruguay. The tango mixed the sound of the violin, the flamenco guitar and the bandoneon (concertina).

It was danced by barmaids and their customers in shady nightclubs. The dance craze spread to Europe and America just prior to World War I. The history of modern Argentina is said to begin around the 1880s with the election of Julio Roca ('The Fox'), revolutions, industrialization, Juan Peron, Kirchner, and who knows what the future will hold?