2003 DECEMBER 17 #351
When I would go thrift store record scrounging, I primarily scanned the bins for two words: POLKA and DISCO. Discorobics remains the grand prize in my disco collectionnot only is it a 2-record set, it originated from a HIGH SCHOOL. I guess the students were sick of aerobic square dancing.
From the back cover:
'An exciting program of aerobic fitness and disco dancing has been tested and developed with enthusiastic response from students and adults at Beach Channel High School in Rockaway Park, New York.' 'DISCOROBICS is a new, exciting and enjoyable method of achieving cardiovascular fitness. Several months of scientific testing have shown that disco dancing is a viable alternative to many of the traditional forms of aerobic exercise. This album stresses methods, procedures, and techniques of disco line and partner dances. The dances are graded in levels of difficulty resulting in higher levels of fitness as the student progresses.'
- Jason Cox, http://www.laspesadillas.com
TT-6:33 / 4.5MB / 96kbps 44.1khz
from "Disco Dance To Fitness' Kimbo Educational (KIM 8025) 1979
(Image courtesy of Jason Cox)
Chris Capoccia writes:
You all may be interested to know that the Hokey Pokey originated in a mocking of the Catholic latin Mass. Canon George Nairn-Briggs, Provost of Wakefield Cathedral, West Yorkshire, says that both the name of the dance and its actions were originally designed to satirise the traditional Mass and the clergy. The dance involves participants forming a chain and flinging their limbs about in line with commands. Canon Nairn-Briggs said: "In the days when the priest celebrated the Mass with his back to the people and whispered the Latin words of consecration with many hand movements, the laity mimicked the movements as they saw them and the words as they misheard them." The words "hokey cokey" were a mishearing, or a deliberate parody, of the Latin phrase "Hoc est enim corpus meum", which translates as "This is my body".