Twist (dance)

German youths dance the twist (Berlin, 1964)

The twist (English twist = rotation, twisting) was a fashion dance in 4/4 time that became popular in the early 1960s and is danced to rock 'n' roll , rhythm and blues or special twist music. The singer Chubby Checker made this dance popular worldwide with his hits The Twist in July 1960 and Let's Twist Again in June 1961. A special feature of this couple dance is that the partners do not touch while dancing. Twist differs from other styles of music that are occurring at the same time in that the time between the eighth notes is even. There is no shuffled rhythm with the twist.

Origins

The origins of the twist are in African American culture. A similar dance known as wringin 'and twistin' was seen on American plantations as early as 1890 . Some typical movements such as movements with the pelvis and turning with the tip of the foot could also be observed in West Africa .

Peak of popularity

The rhythm and blues musician Hank Ballard composed the track The Twist in 1958 , which was released in March 1959 as the B-side of the single Teardrops on Your Letter on the King Records label. Teardrops on Your Letter was # 4 on the Rhythm & Blues charts, and the B-side also made it to # 16 on the same charts. This was made possible by a peculiarity of the American charts, which was not based solely on the sales figures, but also included the frequency of airplay , i.e. playing a piece on the radio. During his stage appearances, Hank Ballard developed a dance routine that ultimately resulted in the twist. It wasn't until the cover version of The Twist by Chubby Checker that it hit the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1960 .

The Twist peaked in popularity in 1961 in New York's Peppermint Lounge bar. Originally only booked for a weekend, the band Joey Dee & The Starliters played for the first time in front of celebrities in the audience. The actress Merle Oberon and Prince Serge Oblinski had danced in the club all night. This is what columnists Earl Wilson and Cholly Knickerbocker reported in the New York Post the next morning . The following evening, the police called for help had to regulate the rush to the Peppermint Lounge. The club became a crowd puller and had many celebrity attendees such as Judy Garland , John Wayne , Jackie Kennedy , Nat 'King' Cole , Shirley MacLaine , Tennessee Williams , Truman Capote and Liberace . The band played for months in the club and they achieved a nationwide hit with the Peppermint Twist . The director Greg Garrison shot his music film Hey Let's Twist with Joey Dee and his band against the backdrop of the events in the Peppermint Lounge during this time . In January 1962 the film came out under the title Twist ... That Skirts Fly in German cinemas.

Circular letter from the Bregenz district captain prohibiting twisting, March 21, 1962

In Germany, the critics described the twist as "sexual trauma" and the circling and pushing movements of the hip were found offensive. Orthopedic surgeons warned of knee injuries and spinal damage. In the Austrian district of Bregenz , the Bregenz district captain Anton Allgeuer even issued a ban on twisting in a circular to the municipalities on March 21, 1962:

“The Bregenz District Authority is of the opinion that the fashion dance 'Twist', which has recently emerged, is capable of causing annoyance and offending the morality of large sections of the population. It is therefore expected of the municipalities that when granting permits for dance entertainment they expressly refer to the provision of Section 5 of the Dance Entertainment Act and cite the 'twist' as an example of a prohibited dance. "

The film Pulp Fiction sparked a twist revival in the 1990s. On the 40th anniversary of dance, Bodo Mrozek wrote in the FAZ in 2001 : "With the twist, postmodernism began on the dance floors."

German twist songs

There were also recordings with German texts such as the Peppermint Twist by Caterina Valente & Silvio Francesco . Twist records were also recorded in the GDR , such as Manfred Krug's Twist in the Night (1963) and Susi Schuster's Jodel-Twist (1963), and Die Amigos (not identical to the popular group Die Amigos ) also sang Oho, Susann in 1963 . The zebra twist produced by Henry Valentino was premiered in Duisburg's Wedaustadion in 1964 , making it the oldest stadium anthem in Germany and has since been played in unchanged form at every home game of MSV Duisburg.