twist

twist, vigorous dance that developed in the early 1960s in the United States and became internationally popular after its adoption in fashionable circles. Rhythm-and-blues singer-songwriter Hank Ballard recorded the song “The Twist” in 1959, but it was Chubby Checker’s hit version in 1960 that ignited a dance craze.

The twist’s characteristic hip, arm, and leg movements have been described as “drying the buttocks with an imaginary towel while grinding out an imaginary cigarette with one foot.” Partners synchronized body positions and gyrations but never touched. Dances that evolved from the twist—for example, the frug and the watusi—were invariably performed by shaking the pelvis. In these dances partners only sometimes coordinated their movements.

Among the suggested precursors of the twist are the shimmy and the black bottom, and a song that was popular before 1910 included the lines “Mama, mama, where is sis? / Down on the levee doin’ the double twis’.”