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I was very excited to get this from Paul Johnson (Belairs, et al) on the
origins of "The Stomp":
-----Original Message-----
Hi Brian -
At the earliest surf dances (summer of '61), not too many of the new young
surfers were very sophisticated when it came to dancing. I don't know just
how it got started, but somehow they took (en masse) to simply stomping
their feet heel-first on the floor - and the louder the better. Since most
of them wore huarachi sandals with big horseshoe taps, and since the dance
floors were usually wooden (and thus very resonant), a big part of the
appeal was to see how much noise they could make collectively. The pattern
was generally to stomp on every count of the measure (on one and two with
the right foot, then on three and four with the left); the cool look was to
do this slightly bent with hands joined behind the back. The dance floor
thus looked like a barnyard full of roosters strutting about. And the noise
all but drowned out the band.
The "stomp" fad peaked during that summer, and was succeeded by that other
noteworthy dance-style of the surfers, "Trippin'" (which may have been a
variation of the stomp, as it was similar). This dance required a bit more
skill: it entailed pulling one's feet backward and "scraping" (rather than
stompimng on) the floor. (Same pattern - right foot on one and two, left
foot on three and four...) When trippin', the cool look was to hold hands
together up in the air, from side to side opposite where the feet were doing
the scraping.
Hope that helps...
- pj
Paul Johnson
rock instrumentals
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