Party dance
A party dance is a group dance with a fixed choreography , which is usually danced to an equally fixed piece of music . As a rule, party dances consist of a sequence of simple dance figures that is 8 to 16 bars long and is repeated over and over again. Party dances are therefore quite easy to learn.
The terms party dance and fashion dance often coincide, but are not synonymous. Party dances are also fashion dances if they trigger a temporary dance fashion. However, this is not the case with most party dances.
One of the oldest party dances is the Memphis , created in England around 1965 , which is danced to the song Memphis, Tennessee (1959) by Pat Boone and can still be found in dance schools today. Other examples are the chicken dance , the Time Warp from the film Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) or La Colita and the Macarena and the dance of the ketchup song (2002).
The dances of the 60s such as Slop, Watusi, Mashed Potato, Shake, Swim, Hully Gully , Memphis and Madison, which were mostly practiced as line dances, are almost forgotten . Ray Charles set part of it a musical and choreographic monument in the film Blues Brothers (1980).