The Cha-Cha Slide And More: Which Dances Were Invented In Chicago?

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

Society & Culture, Education, Public, Chicago, Arts, City, Radio, Curious, Investigation

4.8 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2017

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Don your dancing shoes as we track down the Chicago band members, musicians, and dancers who helped create five iconic moves.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and the region, and investigate, report, explore, from WB, EZ.
0:14.1	Real loud clap, everybody freeze.
0:18.6	One more clap.
0:20.9	Bus stop, please. Oneust up, please.
0:22.7	One, two.
0:24.7	Left, right, one, two.
0:27.3	Ooh, hi there.
0:28.9	I'm W.B.'Z reporter Monica Eng.
0:31.0	And you've just caught me practicing my moves as we get ready to dive into one of the gruviest,
0:36.8	curious city questions ever.
0:39.1	It comes from a couple of teens we met while collecting questions at the library.
0:43.5	They didn't leave their names, but they did leave us this really great question.
0:48.5	Have any dances ever been invented in Chicago?
0:51.4	My search for answers sent me waltzing all over town. And in the process,
0:56.0	I learned a few new things. First, the dance moves have come from all over the city, showcasing once
1:02.8	again Chicago's cultural diversity. Second, some of these dances have spread across the globe.
1:09.3	But many of their inventors, or at least folks who were there when the dances began,
1:13.4	they're still around and happy to talk about them.
1:16.1	Third, Chicago's hatched so many famous dances I can only get to a fraction here.
1:22.5	So I went to explore four different dances from four different eras.
1:27.4	First up, Chicago in the 1950s.
1:32.0	That's when a new style of polka music was shaping a new style of polka dancing. At the time, the city
	...

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