Twerking
Twerking (/ˈtwɜːrkɪŋ/; possibly from 'to work') is a type of dance that emerged from the bounce music scene of New Orleans in 1990,[1] which has a broader origin among other types of dancing found among the African diaspora that derives from Bantu-speaking Africans of Central Africa.[2] Individually performed chiefly but not exclusively by women,[3][4] performers dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving throwing or thrusting their hips back or shaking their buttocks, often in a low squatting stance.[5] Twerking is part of a larger set of characteristic moves unique to the New Orleans style of hip-hop known as "bounce".[6] Moves include "mixing", "exercising", the "bend over", the "shoulder hustle", "clapping", "booty clapping", "booty poppin", "the sleeper" and "the wild wood"—all recognized as booty shaking or bounce.[7][8] Twerking is one among other types of choreographic gestures within bounce.
"Twerk" redirects here. For other uses, see Twerk (disambiguation).As a tradition shaped by local aid and pleasure clubs, block parties and second lines,[9] the dance was central to "a historical situating of sissy bounce—bounce music as performed by artists from the New Orleans African-American community that [led to] a meteoric rise in popularity post-[Hurricane Katrina after 2005]."[10] In the 1990s, twerking had widespread appeal in black party culture throughout the hip-hop/rap region known as The Dirty South, including New Orleans, Memphis, Virginia Beach, Miami, Atlanta, and Houston.[9][10] In 2013, it became the top "what is" search on the Google search engine[11] following pop artist Miley Cyrus performing the dance at the MTV Video Music Awards.[12]
Etymology[edit]
A 2013 Oxford Dictionaries blog post states, "the most likely theory is that it is an alteration of work, because that word has a history of being used in similar ways, with dancers being encouraged to "work it".[13] Local bounce practitioners attribute the term to a contraction of "to work" ("t'work"; or, spelled as it's pronounced, "twerk").[14][15]
The Oxford English Dictionary defines an early 19th-century use of the word as a blend of "twist" and "jerk" (or "twitch"), which was reported by the BBC in conjunction with the black cultural context.[16] The word is said to have originated from the inner-city of New Orleans and was used frequently in New Orleans bounce music by rappers and DJ hosting block parties in the housing projects.[1] On record, the 1993 song "Do the Jubilee All" by DJ Jubilee - which contains the lyrics "Twerk baby, twerk baby, twerk, twerk, twerk" - has been cited as its earliest use.[17][18][19] However, a possible earlier use is in Funkadelic's 1979 song (Not Just) Knee Deep, which contains the lyrics "It didn't twerk, no" (often misquoted as "It didn't work, no") at 1 minutes 20 seconds.
The word became popular in the 2000s, when it was used by Atlanta rapper Lil Jon and The East Side Boyz.[20] A Google Trends search reveals that interest in the word "twerk" arose in November 2011.[21]
The Oxford English Dictionary defines twerking as dancing "in a sexually provocative manner, using thrusting movements of the bottom and hips while in a low, squatting stance".[22] Merriam-Webster gives the definition as a "sexually suggestive dancing characterized by rapid, repeated hip thrusts and shaking of the buttocks especially while squatting".[23]
The Oxford English Dictionary's definition of the term may fuel the stigma[24] around twerking as a sexual and provocative dance.[25]