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 www.rockroll.com.au/fjhist.htm
What is Rock 'n' Roll dance? That's a very hard question to answer. There are those purists who insist that back-step Rock 'n' Roll dance is the only true form. Tap-step, tap-step, back-rock, ballroom style. That's Rock 'n' Roll, so they say. But there are many other related styles and its perhaps unfair to brand them 'not Rock 'n' Roll'.
In South Australia we do a lot of what we call 'Pub Rock'. Its a hybrid formed from traditional Rock 'n' Roll, Jive and Latin dances with a bit of Rockabilly thrown in and a few bits of Swing here and there. Footwork consists largely of stepping evenly to a strong hips and upper-body swivel, but you can mix in back-step, spinning and whatever else fits. In fact, I often switch from Rock 'n' Roll to a Cha-Cha and back again in the same song just to mix things up a bit. Its fun, its fast, its easy to learn and its very, very versatile.
 What is Rock 'n' Roll music? Again, that's hard to define. Many traditional Rock 'n' Rollers sporting Elvis-style haircuts and flashy fifties Rocker gear like to dance to the music of The King, Bill Halley and The Comets, Buddy Holly, Chubby Checker etc. A powerful feature of Pub Rock is that without much fuss or ado you can easily adapt it to almost any style of music with a strong four beats to a bar rhythm (or even three) whether the tune is fast or slow. It doesn't have to be the traditional Rock 'n' Roll era music.
Among my favourite Rock 'n' Roll dance songs are The Romantics' "What I Like About You" and The Pretenders' "Chain Gang" but at a pinch I have danced to The Seekers' "I'll Never Find Another You" when nothing better was available. On one occasion at Adelaide's Arkaba Hotel I proved to my partner that we could dance Rock 'n' Roll to Metallica's "Enter Sandman", probably not the first choice for a Rock 'n' Roll dance competition, although it would sort out the serious devotees from the also-rans. These sorts of tunes won't set your heels on fire the way the The Rivieras "California Sun" does but you can still dance to it if you try. |
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