Way back in the dark ages, in the calendar year of 1970, I was just beginning to learn how to dance. (I took a little tap, a little ballet, a little ballroom, and a little jazz instruction from down the road at our local Parks and Recreation department.) Square dancing was canceled due to lack of interest, which worked out well for me when gymnastics was offered in that vacant time slot.
I took to dance like a blind dog in a meat market. When I tripped and landed with my nose on the ground, dance still smelled like heaven to me.
During the year 1970, I danced my young body to all radio-made popular tunes of the minute: Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head (B.J.Thomas), Bridge Over Troubled Water(Simon & Garfunkel), Spirit In The Sky (Norman Greenbaum), and I Think I Love You (Partridge Family), but my favorite dance song was, “ABC” by The Jackson 5.
Yessiree, young Michael could sure hit those high-C’s back in 1970, and boy could that kid dance… so, I started stealing his moves.
My dancing in 1971 took on a new twist; I dropped that ballet stuff and time-slotted fire batons into its place. I was now tap-tapping my way into back flips while sticks were on fire above my head… The popular dance music of the day magically started to change beat right along with my new mode: Knock Three Times (Dawn), Chick-A-Boom (Daddy Dewdrop), Liar(Three Dog Night), and “Mr. Bojangles” by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Yet, those fire batons needed a theme song in 1971, so naturally I finally settled on Jerry Reed’s, “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” to take me on into my 1972 evolving style of dancing.
Sometime after New Years in 1972, Don McLean’s “American Pie” hit the radio, and I toned down my not-so-original beginning hip-hop moves into a less driving fit; it was time to start incorporating a few of those ballroom moves into my dance style so that I flowed with the music and not against it. By July of 1972, my favorite dance selections included: Sylvia’s Mother (Dr. Hook), Lean On Me (Bill Withers), and “A Horse With No Name” by America.
1973 was the year of 8-tracks and paper gum wrapper chains for me. Oh, don’t get me wrong… I was still dancing away for hours each day; I just needed a little variety in my life. My goal was to make the world’s longest gum wrapper chain. I worked and worked on that chain, finally giving up on it when a found a money-making byproduct for gum wrappers.
Wrigley’s brand of chewing gum had “magic” foil inside; this foil wrapper would fix everybody’s broken 8-track tapes. All 8-track tapes broke easily, so I was definitely onto something good. My music collection grew quickly along with my piggy bank collection, and soon I was dancing away to Guess Who “#10” album, Deep Purple’s “Who Do We Think We Are Album”, and Three Dog Night’s “Hard Labor”album.
During 1974 and 1975 my tastes in dance music changed; the music sounds were evolving. Songs like, The Streak (Ray Stevens) and The Entertainer (Marvin Hanslisch) were beginning to mix into my traditional dance music choices, but they made choreography a challenge. I found myself working more ballroom dancing moves into dance routines to go along with the currently popular songs that audiences enjoyed.
By the end of 1975, it was clear that America were headed into a new brand of music. Whoever would have guessed that ballroom dancing would become the next National Fad in the form of Disco? Certainly not me! But, by luck, I was there and ready when Abba declared that people like me were the, “Dancing Queen“. God bless you, Village People!!! I wasn’t outdated; I was just getting started…
Yes, I know. It’s completely uncouth to declare that you ever liked Disco. I loved Disco! All of that whirling around the dance floor in the arms of a good driver just thrilled me. And, I loved the music: Rubberband Man (Spinners), Carwash(Rose Royce), ILike Dreamin‘ (Kenny Nolan) and especially that, Ohh, I Like It …Uh-huh Uh-huh, little ditty by, KC & The Sunshine Band.
Unfortunately for me, Disco along with my adored 8-track music was beginning to fade out of American memory by the beginning of 1979. About the time that Village People came out with their 1979 YMCA dance song, it was marking the end of my performance days. The dance styles were changing again, and I felt more comfortable at this time teaching the little ones all about how to throw flaming sticks into the air.
I never did totally conform to changing dance music standards after 1979…. While my young students did their recitals to the music out of my 8-track collection, after the year 1979, I would sit there in the front row of the audience, smiling, and again working on my paper gum wrapper chain. Those 1980’s children really liked to dance to my oldies and “Disco Duck” (Rick Dee’s) tunes playing with annoying clicks between track changes on my funny old antique-to-them 8-track player.
Today, almost 30-years later, my 8-track collection is still playing behind me as I type; over in the corner where they’ve always been, are the fire batons that I still occasionally toss around. My all-time favorite dancing song from the 1970’s is, Proud Mary (Credence Clearwater Revival). I did the dance called “The Bump” to that song at a competition in Europe one time. Proud Mary makes me smile every time that I hear it, and remember exactly how hard those Europeans judges were laughing at our new American dance craze.
