It wasn’t just John Travolta who had Saturday night fever in the ’70s. Plenty of us would get dressed up in our best and head out for an evening on fun and frivolity.
When we went out to dance, we actually danced. Few of us would pin ourselves against the bar and drink ourselves into a stupor. Nope, we actually enjoyed getting down and having a boogie and the 1970s has some classic dance steps.
Remember how to Do The Hustle?
It was in ’75 that singer Van McCoy got us out on the dance floor. There were both line and partner forms of The Hustle. It was like a mix of Swing and Latin performed to a 1970s disco beat.
What about The Bump?
It was pretty easy to do The Bump because it didn’t require us to learn a bunch of complicated dance steps or moves. We would sway to the music with our partners and then come together to bump hips (or other body parts) when the beat called for it.
Of course we were supposed to bump gently, but some of us would get carried away and bump so hard our partners would go sprawling across the dance floor.
There were a few songs inspired by the dance, including this one.
The YMCA
It’s safe to say we all knew how to do the YMCA and The Village People hit from 1978 made this dance hugely popular over multiple decades.
The Bus Stop
The Bus Stop is pretty straight forward (maybe not as simple as the YMCA, because it involves your feet) and we would start with our feet together in a line facing the front of the room. With our right foot first, we’d step back three times and then on the third step we’d stop, tap our left foot against our right foot and clap. We’d repeat the process moving forward on the left foot. While forward and backward is simple enough we’d throw in some side movements and more clapping and it would be great fun.
Check it out.
Now it wouldn’t be the ’70s if we didn’t reminisce about the Funky Chicken Dance, which is not to be confused with the ‘Chicken Dance’.
We danced it in a group or on our own and it involved steps with names like ‘chicken wings’ and ‘chicken legs’. We looked like chickens as we imitated the jerky movements of the animal. Remember? Here’s a reminder just in case you’d forgot.