Jazz, blues and nostalgia. Today: ‘The world a dance party’.
In the past century one dance craze after the other swept over the world. Pushed by hot and rushed or just slow sensual music. Charleston, jitterbug, racoon, heebie jeebies, piccolino, twist, creep, bossa nova, flat foot floozie – one dance wasn’t picked up yet when the next one presented itself. That is why pictures on chewing gum wrappers gave instructions about what was great at the moment. An hour long focus on these crazes and about what effects these dances could have. From the explosive dancing of the ‘Roaring Twenties’ unto Francisco Lomuto with a tango of which nostalgia exudes, the athletic Nicholas Brothers, elegant music from the dance films of Fred Astaire & Ginger Rodgers, the tragic tale behind the ‘Tennessee Waltz’, the witty duo Slim & Slam, comedian Tom Lehrer with ‘The Masochism Tango’, June Christy about her dancing upstairs neighbour, Vic Damone, Doris Day, a handsome swinging Artie Shaw, Blossom Dearie who just didn’t want to dance and the legendary Mr. Bojangles. In short: joys and sorrows on the dance floor.
