Fashionable dances succeed each other, and the further, the faster. Every time you hear the discontented grumbling of fans of the previous prevailing tendency, who invariably persist in stating that “they have not seen such disgrace yet”, and “everything was different in their years.”
From tango to twerk
It is enough to recall that tango during its entry into the dance culture was considered something obscene and unacceptable for decent young ladies. There was a lot of controversy around jazz, but they calmed down after the advent of rock and roll, twist and neck. There really is almost nothing to say about disco-style dances: older people sighed happily, seeing such comfort in the ranks of young people, but in the mid-eighties there was a break dance, which became another challenge to conservatism and a huge help for cleaning the dance halls (young people, rolling and spinning, mopped their own clothes).
And now twerk. This is a sexually provocative dance performed by girls. He became fashionable relatively recently, although he appeared more than two decades ago. Energetic evocative movements to rhythmic music with ambiguous (and sometimes unambiguous) lyrics themselves are nothing new. But there is something that distinguishes twerk from a number of other modern dances - “bumpers”.
Musical basis
Performing a new dance to the old music is uninteresting. However, there have never been completely new styles in the world of mass culture, in all cases a certain continuity has been observed. According to many successful promoters, for commercial success, a style must have elements of novelty, but it must be reminded of something that was earlier, otherwise the audience simply will not understand the whole revolutionary idea.
The musical base on which twerk originated is a type of rap characteristic of the southern states of the USA (Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida). The second name is bounces (in translation - boasting, but about what the dancers boast, the story will go below). The pioneers of the style in the early nineties were rappers Luke, Wreckx-n-Effect, DJ Jubilee, Cheeky Blakk, Ying Yang Twins and other musicians with hard-to-read and almost unpronounceable nicknames.
The most famous bounty performer was Jusi Jay, a former lead singer of Three 6 Mafia from Memphis, Tenn. It was he who recorded the song “Bandz A Make Her Dance”, in which he boastfully claims that everyone who hears her sounds will certainly begin to “twitch”.
What does the word twerk mean?
One of the keys to the successful promotion of a new musical or dance style is a short, biting and memorable name. This crackling harmony is fully consistent with all the criteria of modern promotional art.
In its morphology, “twerk” is a derivative of the words “twist,” that is, torsion, and “jerk,” meaning “yank.” As in many other cases, the name of the dance in its official meaning does not reflect its essence, it has a certain element of esotericism (understanding only by those who know what it is about). The same thing happened with rock and roll, whose name actually means not so much “swing and spin”, but quite, completely different ... In youth jargon, the word “jerk” has another meaning, and it translates as “masturbation” .
The technical basis of dance
So, with the origin of the name and music, everything is more or less clear. It remains to learn the most important thing, namely, how to dance twerk. It is not as simple as it seems. As in any dance, it all starts with the position of the legs. They should be bent, which will provide a certain freedom of movement of the hips, namely they play a major role. Then two main movements should be learned: the “shake”, that is, the shaking, and the “hip roll” - rotation of the hips. Both that, and another has many options, but it is necessary to remember that at the same time shoulders need to be kept at the same level. Having learned this rule, you can proceed to the rotation of the upper body. It is performed in the direction opposite to the hips: if the chest turns to the right, then the buttocks to the left, and vice versa.
Twerk image
Mastering the right movements is not all. Twerk dance involves a certain image, which each of its performers seeks to create. The erotic component of the movements is very important, and it goes beyond just correctly executed pa. In order to understand how to learn twerking, you need to feel this dance, to feel for some time the right and well-educated girl who suddenly decided to break away to the fullest. This image doesn’t suit everyone, but it’s worth experimenting. Especially to the face he is to those girls who have something to shake and twist, but there are many cases where one hundred percent get thin and thin.
There is no doubt the benefit of the feeling of freedom and possession of one's own body that the twerk gives. This is an energetic dance that requires emotional and physical stress at the limit of possibilities, and sometimes beyond.
How long the twerk mod will last is unknown. Perhaps he will be replaced by a new dance, even more expressive. Wait and see!