(WYTV)- In 1996, approximately 72,000 people gathered to do the chicken dance at the Canfield Fair, setting the record for the largest dance in modern history.
1998 saw the largest tap dance on record: 6,900 tapped in Germany and the longest conga line: 12,000 in Miami, Florida, March 1988. Some singers create their own dances to fit their songs. Michael Jackson created the “moonwalk” for his hit “Thriller” in 1982.
Dancers at an Italian wedding invented ballet in 1495. As a teenager, Rapper Tupac Shakur was a ballet dancer, and a member of the 127th Street Ensemble, a theater company in Harlem.
Michael Flatley of Riverdance holds the record for the world’s highest-paid dancer, earning $1.8 million a week in his prime. His legs were insured for $44.7 million.
Soul singer James Brown started a dance craze called “The Good Foot” which led to breakdancing. “Rumba” is Spanish for party or a good time.
The word “disco” is from the French discotheque, meaning “library of phonograph records.”
The word “waltz” comes from waltzen, which is German for glide or turn, and at first, the waltz was considered “shocking” and “sinful.”
Dancers and choreographers rank first as the professions with the highest divorce rates.
Bartenders and massage therapists round out the top three. St. Vitus is the patron saint of dancers, actors, and epileptics.
As Voltaire said, let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
