#watusi

[morgansram]

Watusi bull playing with sand X

[pascel]

Little sketch practice

[melodeelaine]

African Cattle

[livefromphilly]

[oldshowbiz]

Topless Watusi Action a Go Go

[photos-of-the-day]

Dance Trends - Watusi (1960s)

If you’ve been haunting the jukebox & polishing your loafers any time between ’62 & yesterday, you’ll already have clocked the Watusi, a strictly solo affair that flared up like a Roman candle & promptly set half of America swivelling. It was one of those irresistible early Sixties crazes: easy to catch, impossible to ignore, & positively compulsory once the beat kicked in. No partner required, no apologies offered… just you, the rhythm, & a bit of nerve.

The name itself was borrowed from an older term for the Tutsi people of Africa, long admired (& much talked about, sometimes clumsily) for ceremonial dances of tremendous athleticism & visual splendour. Stateside, the spark may well have come courtesy of Hollywood spectacle, many point to a memorable moment featuring Tutsi dancers in ‘King Solomon’s Mines’, while others credit its follow-up, ‘Watusi’, for planting the idea in the popular imagination.

Whatever its precise parentage, the Watusi landed at exactly the right moment: when teenagers wanted something bold, modern, & delightfully individual. You didn’t learn it so much as pick it up, somewhere between the sofa & the record player. Flashy? Certainly. Civilised? Debatable. But for a hot minute in the early Sixties, it was the coolest thing on two feet… & that, kittens, is quite enough to secure it a place in pop history.

[chimeride]

[blondebrainpowered]

Batman, 1966 - 1968

Batman doing the Batusi.