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Jackie: There are very few cultures where dance isn't important and for us in the West dance, and different types of dance, continues to change.
Richard: Yes. There are loads of different types of music and loads of different dances and in fact nowadays I think, anything goes.
Jackie: Mmm, yes but perhaps it was fifty years ago, Richard, back in 1961 that a new dance craze started and changed the way that people moved.
Richard: And so for this week's podcastsinenglish.com we're talking about the Twist. [music] So Jackie, why was the Twist important?
Jackie: Well, I think we have to remember that um… we’re talking about 1961, so in the 1950's, when people were dancing, they were dancing, you know, with a partner, you were dancing as a couple.
Richard: Well, not just the 1950's.
Jackie: Up until then.
Richard: All up until then, old fashioned stuff, yes.
Jackie: Yes, so there was a… a routine and certain steps and one of the big things about the Twist is that you were dancing independently, there was no um… bodily contact. You're not physically attached to… to your partner. So for the first time you were kind of doing your own thing, you were being independent. This seems very normal to us nowadays but back then it was almost like a revolution.
Richard: And like a lot of um… dances you didn't really have to learn it, did you? 'Cos it's very, very simple to do.
Jackie: Right, Richard, so how… [both laugh] how do you do the twist?
Richard: I'm not really sure but it's quite easy to do… but your top half of your body goes one way and your bottom half goes another.
Jackie: I… I think the top half… your arms are out a little bit.
Richard: Yes
Jackie: And you’re… it's like you're in… you've just had a shower and you've got this invisible towel and… [both laugh]
Richard: …and you're drying your back.
Jackie: You're drying your back with your towel.
Richard: Right, okay.
Jackie: And then with your feet, which… which you’re right, are going in the other direction you're putting out um…
Richard: ...a cigarette.
Jackie: …an invisible cigarette. [Richard laughs] So… and if you want to you can go up and down but it's fairly simple. So, it's good, isn't it Richard, because you can't dance.
Richard: [laughs] No, well I haven't been taught how to dance like the other dances you need to be taught the steps, something like the Twist you can just get on and do it and just um… twist. It's very easy, even for me.
Jackie: And even nowadays, Richard, we don't really go to many parties or do much dancing but if people put on a… on a record er… from the 1960's people do get up and do the Twist.
Richard: I think a lot of people, certainly a lot of people we know, you immediately start doing the Twist almost straight away. And especially the very popular record still, Chubby Checker: Let's Twist Again [laughs] Like We Did Last Summer, always guaranteed to get people on the dance floor.
Jackie: It's interesting because he had that record Let's Twist Again because in fact his first record was The Twist which was the year before but it took a year or so for it to take off and it's interesting because nowadays if there's a craze, it's on Youtube, it's on the Internet, crazes happen very quickly and before the Internet things took a little bit longer.
Richard: Yes, well now 50 years on, people are still twisting.
Jackie: Richard, let's twist again. [both laugh]
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