When most people think about twerking, they probably think about this:
If you're one of those people, then I'm sorry. Not only am I sorry that this image is permanently seared into your memory, but I am also sorry but you have got it all wrong.
Twenty years before Miley Cyrus made us all go
DJ Jubilee released what many believe to be the first recorded use of the word "twerk" with his hit single and soon-to-be bounce classic "Jubilee All (Stop Pause)." The party song features Jubilee calling out dance moves for the audience to perform. The lyrics are a series of Do-the-insert-dance-move-here's that got people moving and grooving and twerking all over the city.
Twerking, though, was likely already happening in clubs and at bounce shows before "Jubilee All." Two years after "Jubilee All," Cheeky Blakk's "Twerk Something," which you can probably guess is an ode to the dance, became a hit on the bounce scene. Since then, twerking has remained the signature dance move of bounce. If you're at a bounce show and nobody is twerking, then it isn't a bounce show. Music videos are often dance showcases, featuring people of different ages and genders showing off their best moves, and of course, their twerking.
What Miley quickly picked up, made trendy, then discarded was actually a bit of culture with a rich history of celebration and community. Though many tend to racialize and gender twerking, at bounce shows, dancers come in many different forms. While many reserve the move for black women, many young men twerk at shows and are even backup dancers for artists. Further, as bounce has become more popular outside of the New Orleans projects and predominantly black clubs, participation of other races has increased and twerkers of different races can be seen at many shows.
Twerking's origins, though, goes even farther back than bounce. Some say that its lie in West African dance and was carried over into African American culture. Mapouka, a dance native to Cote D'Ivoire, similarly involves women shaking their rear ends. Others argue that the 70s dance trend the bump may have evolved into what we now know as twerking.
Regardless of where New Orleans picked it up from, bounce made twerking its own.
If you're one of those people, then I'm sorry. Not only am I sorry that this image is permanently seared into your memory, but I am also sorry but you have got it all wrong.
Twenty years before Miley Cyrus made us all go
DJ Jubilee released what many believe to be the first recorded use of the word "twerk" with his hit single and soon-to-be bounce classic "Jubilee All (Stop Pause)." The party song features Jubilee calling out dance moves for the audience to perform. The lyrics are a series of Do-the-insert-dance-move-here's that got people moving and grooving and twerking all over the city.
Twerking, though, was likely already happening in clubs and at bounce shows before "Jubilee All." Two years after "Jubilee All," Cheeky Blakk's "Twerk Something," which you can probably guess is an ode to the dance, became a hit on the bounce scene. Since then, twerking has remained the signature dance move of bounce. If you're at a bounce show and nobody is twerking, then it isn't a bounce show. Music videos are often dance showcases, featuring people of different ages and genders showing off their best moves, and of course, their twerking.
What Miley quickly picked up, made trendy, then discarded was actually a bit of culture with a rich history of celebration and community. Though many tend to racialize and gender twerking, at bounce shows, dancers come in many different forms. While many reserve the move for black women, many young men twerk at shows and are even backup dancers for artists. Further, as bounce has become more popular outside of the New Orleans projects and predominantly black clubs, participation of other races has increased and twerkers of different races can be seen at many shows.
Twerking's origins, though, goes even farther back than bounce. Some say that its lie in West African dance and was carried over into African American culture. Mapouka, a dance native to Cote D'Ivoire, similarly involves women shaking their rear ends. Others argue that the 70s dance trend the bump may have evolved into what we now know as twerking.
Regardless of where New Orleans picked it up from, bounce made twerking its own.
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