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Invention of the Cha Cha and other dances


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Old 19-09-2009, 14:14
calamity
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Just thought Id throw this in for anyone who doesnt know where it came from...this is the famous Gene Kellys brother who taught Princess Elizabeth and Margaret how to do some modern dances.
Fred Kelly
He taught his famous brother to tap dance . . . trained young royals to swing . . . invented the cha-cha . . . and helped a young John Travolta polish his moves. Who was he? None other than Pitt Alumnus Fred Kelly, younger brother of dancer and fellow Pitt Alumnus Gene Kelly, and an accomplished dancer, choreographer, and director in his own right.
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Old 19-09-2009, 14:22
calamity
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I love watching this dance , although I dont think we'll see it on SCD.. the Lindy Hop..

Lindy Hop, having nothing to do with aviation, Lindbergh, or hopping, is named after Charles Lindbergh's flight to Paris in 1927, when newspapers headlines read: "LINDY HOPS THE ATLANTIC". The name Lindy Hop seems to have come from a joke or clever euphemism. By the late 1920's a new, exciting style of dancing began emerging from Harlem. This mostly black neighborhood in northern Manhattan (New York) was undergoing a cultural renaissance, producing incredible art, music, literature, poetry, and yes, dancing unlike anything ever seen before. When "Shorty George" Snowden, the most popular dancer of his time, was asked by a reporter what he was doing, Shorty George replied that he was "doing Lindy's Hop." Either Shorty was joking or thought that such a name might catch on given Lindbergh's popularity (or Shorty felt like he was flying and just thought of a clever metaphor - we don't really know for sure) One way or the other, the name stuck. This exciting style of dance that originated in Harlem Jazz Clubs would be forever known as Lindy Hop.
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