Looking back: When did you last go dancing?

Going dancng was the favourite place to meet the opposite sex and in Sheffield it usually meant the Locarno or City Hall Ballroom. Particularly popular was the ‘City Hall Shuffle’ or ‘The Creep’ which had originated through the music of the same name by band leader Ken Mackintosh around 1954. Both dances were a hypnotic kind of shuffle round the dance floor.

I suspect dancing is a foreign concept to most young people today, unless they decide to join a salsa or a swing class.

I wonder when it ceased to be part of people’s lives? Excuses I have heard are that music just doesn’t seem to be written anymore for dancing, or that young people feel embarrassed or humiliated if they can’t dance. They equate dance with watching ‘Strictly’ or ‘The Greatest Dancer’

Remembering dance can be a nostalgic journey. Our parents could have told us about Swing, Jitterbug and the Lindy hop, but it wasn’t until the 1950s were well underway before dance became a big part of our lives. Many of us learnt ballroom dancing at school and could waltz and quickstep with the best of them. There were occasional quirky kind of dances like the Conga which had originated with Cuban slaves, and unfailingly popular was the ‘Cha Cha Cha’ which followed the ‘Mambo’. But we came into our own when teenagers were invented, together with our kind of music.

It was said by historians that rock and roll is one of the things that define the 20th century. I’m sure that is right. Rock and roll certainly changed our lives. Its origins seem to be hotly debated but for me it would have to be with the film ‘Rock Around the Clock’ in 1956.

After that there was no stopping us. At our youth club, we demanded the latest in music, practising rock and roll relentlessly. Young men versed in Americanisms would ask you ‘Wanna bop?’ and we straightened up our frou frou petticoats before hitting the dance floor.

After that, the dance crazes kept on coming. Chubby Checker had us twisting with ‘Lets Twist Again’

There was the ‘Jerk’, ‘Pony’, ‘Watusi’, ‘Mashed Potato’, courtesy of James Brown, ‘Monkey’ and ‘Funky Chicken’.

There was the steamy Lambada which was very much ‘dirty dancing’ and which gave many men the chance to pretend they were Latin lotharios!

But for me, one of the strangest dance crazes must be the one called ‘Oops, Upside Your Head’ which was really popular throughout the 1980s, especially at Christmas parties and weddings. It involved rows of people performing a rhythmic rowing action. The lyrics were possibly some of the most repetitive ever and consisted mostly of ‘Say Oops upside your head’ over and over again!

It was actually great fun to do but made a mess of your clothes if the floor was dirty. However, I don’t think I’d be able to get down on the floor to do it these days and if I could, I wouldn’t be able to get up again!