Jon. Well, history sure tells a story! And what a strange one.... I still think it is naff and it makes me cringe when ever I hear the tune (apart from when Bill Bailey does Kraftwerk)...I admit that I have danced to it many times during my childhood at various parties. It is very popular with the older generation here... Perhaps it assisted us in WW2 victory....lol The one mechanical genius to hail from the USA is the Harley Davidson motorbike, Was out riding a Sportster 1200cc today with my 'man' who was riding a Victory,(a contemporary piece of kit)....was cool... Nite.....Amanda Jon Kamm <kammagic@comcast.net> wrote: What Is The Hokey Cokey? The Hokey Cokey is a very special dance - it is joyous and energetic, but also intimate and special. The dance is world reknown, although very few people appreciate the subtlety and closeness that it can bring. It is also called the "hokey pokey", but not by those who really understand the essence of the dance. Contrary to popular belief, and even in some "hokey pokey" communities, it is not a predefined sequence of steps that should be rushed through. Each step has a distinct meaning and purpose (see the History section), and should be communicated through the dance (so called "micro Cokey", leading). People from outside often to charge headlong into it by learning the steps but not actually being with the music. And yes, if you've learnt to "Do the Hokey Cokey" (shudder!) at a party while having fun, you're doing it wrong! The dance is usually done in a circle, and over the course of an evening, people will move so as to dance with different people of very different abilities. People who have done other related things (such as tango, marital arts, Tai Chi etc) find the spiritual depth of the dance easy to grasp. Muscle control and good posture are the key to hokey cokey - good dancers have relaxed back muscles and shoulders, but retain a slight tension in the upper forearm with more tension in the lower forearm. Microtension in the wrong part of a tendon can lead to overbalancing or stiffness (seen sometimes on the continent) and can lead to the dancers ending up in the dreadful can can by over zealous swinging of the legs! The actions should be smooth and deliberate with each muscle moved carefully and precisely - this can take many years to achieve. Hokey Cokey History The Hokey Cokey started as a 17th Century paradody of the Cathloic Mass and is thought to be a corruption of the Latin hoc et corpus , meaning "this is my body", a central part of the communion service. The 'knees bend, arm stretch' is a parady of the genuflection, and the 'ra ra ra' represents the repetiton of the latin which was not understood by the lay congregation. It was popularised in 1953 in the US by the band leader Ray Anthony who introduced it to dancehalls in the US, during the 'Golden age of Hokey Cokey'. During this time it was danced by immigrant workers and the poor, and was very different from the dance we know today. Nowadays, hokey cokey is used as a celebration dance, an outpouring of joy usually accompanied by weddings, christening or at special 'cokey salons', where people come to meet and dance. The dance has had a huge resurgence in recent years due it's appearance in Hollywood films, although beginners should note that some of the sequences in these films bear no or little resemblance to the real dance and are often hurried, jerky dances with no feeling for the music! It's a great way to introduce children to movement and music and how the two are linked via dance. Some people even bring their children along to our lessons - they're never too young to appreciate social dancing. _______________________________________________ Yello mailing list Yello@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/yello Report list abuse to list-abuse at studio-nibble.com