Disco Step-by-Step. The Hustle"

[Tim Tam]

Hi.

I have been looking at some vids over at Youtube of the 70's TV show Disco Step-by-Step and was wondering if the people are dancing "The Hustle"?

YouTube - Disco Step-by-Step® Dance Television Show - (3 of 4)


I have seen several types of dance branded as "The Hustle" but is this the real deal?

I am quite taken by the dancing on the clip and would love to learn to dance like this but I might have left my run about thirty years too late. Of course if I did learn I wouldn't have anywhere to do it though. Sigh.

Cheers,
Tim Tam

[rhessel]

Hello:

Do you know the name of the song which is playing?

Thanks,

[Tim Tam]

The song is:

"Don't you know how much I love you?"

By The Love Unlimited Orchestra

Cheers,

Tim Tam

[Mixmachine]

Hi.

I have been looking at some vids over at Youtube of the 70's TV show Disco Step-by-Step and was wondering if the people are dancing "The Hustle"?

YouTube - Disco Step-by-Step® Dance Television Show - (3 of 4)


I have seen several types of dance branded as "The Hustle" but is this the real deal?

I am quite taken by the dancing on the clip and would love to learn to dance like this but I might have left my run about thirty years too late. Of course if I did learn I wouldn't have anywhere to do it though. Sigh.

Cheers,
Tim Tam

Yeap, this is the real "Hustle" you see here alright, although in this video (and the other videos in the series) I see mostly your 'average' weekend dancer, the really fancy dancers performed way more intricate and complicated moves than you see here, for instance they 'd throw the female partner spiraling up in the air and softly catching her without missing a beat, other moves involved slinging her under their legs and then pulling her back up to her feet to continue dancing, sometimes couples performed wildly fast speed 360 twisting while holding the female sideways across their shoulders, and then softly sliding her off across their backs etc etc.

Sometimes males danced with two females partners at once, this was really something exiting to watch, as all three had to be pretty fast on their feet , especially dancing to a 130 bpm song.

Other times many males gathered around a single female (usually a great dancer) in a circle , with each male cutting into the last one's action in rapid succession trying to out- perform the last dancer.

This was an exiting era for Dancing, in Miami Florida just about every Disco was full of people doing the Hustle, (funny there was a club down here also called the 747) this all began around 1975 and lasted until the end of '79, by then the music changed and "The Hustle" faded into history....

[rhessel]

Hi Tim Tam:

Thank you. I'll try to get this song.

Have a nice day.

[Tim Tam]

Yeap, this is the real "Hustle" you see here alright, although in this video (and the other videos in the series) I see mostly your 'average' weekend dancer, the really fancy dancers performed way more intricate and complicated moves than you see here, for instance they 'd throw the female partner spiraling up in the air and softly catching her without missing a beat, other moves involved slinging her under their legs and then pulling her back up to her feet to continue dancing, sometimes couples performed wildly fast speed 360 twisting while holding the female sideways across their shoulders, and then softly sliding her off across their backs etc etc.

Sometimes males danced with two females partners at once, this was really something exiting to watch, as all three had to be pretty fast on their feet , especially dancing to a 130 bpm song.

Other times many males gathered around a single female (usually a great dancer) in a circle , with each male cutting into the last one's action in rapid succession trying to out- perform the last dancer.

This was an exiting era for Dancing, in Miami Florida just about every Disco was full of people doing the Hustle, (funny there was a club down here also called the 747) this all began around 1975 and lasted until the end of '79, by then the music changed and "The Hustle" faded into history....

Thanks for enlightening me Mixmachine.


Gotta say that even though they may be just average dancers it still looks very impressive to me. I come from an era when most most nightclub "dancing" was basically people standing opposite each other waving their arms and legs about. Seeing couples move as one like that looks fantastic (and sexy) and is to me what dancing ought to be about.

Of the dances you described the one that intrigued me most was the one guy dancing with two partners. I can't imagine how it would work but it must have been very, very impressive.


Thanks again for taking the time to explain all this.

Cheers,
Tim Tam

[Mixmachine]

Thanks for enlightening me Mixmachine.


Gotta say that even though they may be just average dancers it still looks very impressive to me. I come from an era when most most nightclub "dancing" was basically people standing opposite each other waving their arms and legs about. Seeing couples move as one like that looks fantastic (and sexy) and is to me what dancing ought to be about.

Well, This dancers on this clips are better than the majority of dancers of the day, and my use of the word 'average' was probably not fair, since at any given point your average dancer of the day couldn't do what they are doing in this clips.

In reality most dancers just got by with your basic 'Hustle' moves, the really fancy dancers probably didn't number any more than 10 or 20% of the general crowd I'd say, many of this couples were always chasing the numerous "dance contests" offered just about every week by one club or another; some of this couples even traveled to different County's clubs to enter this Contests for price money and/or freebies, as some of this couples -- even though they were popular and well known --- were not allowed by management to compete in some local clubs because they were to good and had already won the contest before, probably numerous times.

Of the dances you described the one that intrigued me most was the one guy dancing with two partners. I can't imagine how it would work but it must have been very, very impressive.

Let me see if I can give you a visualbut this was not only difficult to do, but is hard to describe too:icon_confused:

But think of the same moves you see in the clip but instead the male performs this moves simultaneously with each female facing him while she holds one of his hands, when he twists and turns (under his/her arms) he does it with one female first (while the other dances behind his back still holding his hand) then he retreats and does his move again with the other one, sometimes females crossed each other while the male negotiated the girls all around him, all this while all three are spinning gracefully in a big circle, there is a lot of hand switching and crossing as you can imagine, and if they break off they'd quickly recovered and continued on.

As all we youngster in those days used to dress up and wear our best 'threads' and shoes to the clubs (unlike today) many also practiced their ‘Hustle’ moves almost everyday, especially the fancy dancers, and come weekend they went off to the Disco to show off their latest new Hustle moves to their competitors and admirers:icon_cool:..

Take a look at this Sylvester's 'Disco Heat' video from The Midnite Special Show, some fancy Hustle dancing going on here both on and off stage, keep your eye in the front crowds by the left side, around the 45 second mark you'll see a guy dancing with two girls for a brief moment, at the 2:45 mark the Stage dancers engage in some fancy Hustle foot work, very typical moves of the day, and if you look closely at the 4:32 mark you can see in the crowd (closer to the stage) a female spinning 6' high upside down with split legs held only by her trusted partners hands.

Yeap, those days are unfortunately, long gone....:icon_confused:

[Tim Tam]

Thanks again Mixmachine.

Let me see if I can give you a visualbut this was not only difficult to do, but is hard to describe too:icon_confused:

But think of the same moves you see in the clip but instead the male performs this moves simultaneously with each female facing him while she holds one of his hands, when he twists and turns (under his/her arms) he does it with one female first (while the other dances behind his back still holding his hand) then he retreats and does his move again with the other one, sometimes females crossed each other while the male negotiated the girls all around him, all this while all three are spinning gracefully in a big circle, there is a lot of hand switching and crossing as you can imagine, and if they break off they'd quickly recovered and continued on.

I reckon you did an excellent job with the description. I can see it now in my mind's eye.

Take a look at this Sylvester's 'Disco Heat' video from The Midnite Special Show, some fancy Hustle dancing going on here both on and off stage, keep your eye in the front crowds by the left side, around the 45 second mark you'll see a guy dancing with two girls for a brief moment, at the 2:45 mark the Stage dancers engage in some fancy Hustle foot work, very typical moves of the day, and if you look closely at the 4:32 mark you can see in the crowd (closer to the stage) a female spinning 6' high upside down with split legs held only by her trusted partners hands.

Yeap, those days are unfortunately, long gone....:icon_confused:

Thanks for the link to this. Some fantastic dancing going on there. You have to admire the skill and dedication that it took to do that.


Enjoyable as the clip was I did also get a strong feeling of melancholy watching it, knowing that such times are gone forever.

Cheers,
Tim Tam