Vintage Swing Dance, Sept. 11, 2015
From the documentary: DANCETIME RESEARCH #1 The Camel Walk dance was originally a ragtime vaudeville dance that became a social couples dance and later on a solo dance. Here Al Minns shows us one of the solo variations. -snip- This is a demonstration of one way that the camel walk was danced in 1935. Here are two comments from this video's discussion thread: 1. Oxygen 7, 2021
"0:30 people calling that the 3 walk now"
**
2. Les Toil
"That don’t look like the camel walk I remember as a kid. But kind of."
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/09/videos-of-camel-walk-dance-shriners.html
**** INFORMATION ABOUT THE CAMEL WALK DANCE From http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3camel.htm
"The Camel Walk was a ragtime animal dance, came originally from Vaudeville shows. The Camel Walk was mainly done by college students and "flappers" during the Jazz age in the 1910's and 20's with the public as a social dance. It was basically done with a Straight Up (Posture) but otherwise was walking 1920's fox-trot from start to end while dragging your steps slightly, done to slow music and in a zigzag direction or rotary direction. The Camel Walk drew a lot of displeasure among many mainly because the Girls would rest their heads on the leaders shoulder while dancing which many frowned upon as vulgar dancing. Occasionally the dance was varied with Fox-Trot steps by those who disliked anything quite so extreme.
[..]
The Camel Walk spin-offs of the 1910's became a popular retro dance to do at the time in the 1950's/60's, however these spin-off's were freestyle rather than couples. With such dances as the Camel Walk, Dance the Camel Walk, The Camel Walk Stroll etc ... It is said the the Horse dance was just another Camel Walk. The Camel Walk became the Stroll in the 1950's.
The two signature step's of the Camel Walk was the ronde or fan (rotary-walk rather than a gait or a transverse walk? of the leg, and the high slow lifting walking step forward. There is also the 'knee pop' or funky "Camel-Walk" variation with the leg hooking behind the other as seen in the above clip by Sammy. The Boogie Walks / Shorty George are also related to the Camel walk."
**** SHOWCASE VIDEO #2: James Brown and Sammy Davis Junior There was a time dancing together [demonstration of a 1960s style of dancing the camel walk]
-snip- The portion of the camel walk begins around 2:22 in this video. Actor, singer, dancer Sammy Davis, Jr. demonstrates the 1960s way of dancing "the camel walk" to singer, composer, dancer James Brown.
**** SHOWCASE VIDEO #3: Shriners- Chicago Camel Walk 2010
Hitting that Camel Walk. Song by my boy Gevonte Davis. Gulfport, Mississippi
-snip-
Here's some comments from that video's discussion thread:(with numbers added for referencing purposes only)
1. bmo, 2011
"search for "james brown dancing" - big time camel walk!"
**
2. Chris Styles, 2012
"wow. we did this back in the mid 80s. I can't believe kids are bringing this back."
**
3. infocus2008, 2012
"History does repeat itself"
**
Reply
4. DeathAngel7030, 2013
"Yeah I know. It was originally used as an intro while breakdancing
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO #5: Camel Walk Tutorial - Flockey [2013]
-snip-
Here are some comments from this video's discussion thread, with numbers added for referencing purposes only.
... the jazz dance became a soul dance and its still goin strong ..."
** 3. packleader87, 2014 "Sammy Davis' walk was amazing too." ** Reply 4. Anders, 2018 "word ......" -snip- "Word" here is an African American Vernacular English term that is a shortened form for the statement "I hear the words that you're saying and I agree".
** 5. RIFICA777, 2015 "Nice. This the dance from the 60's?" ** Reply 6. Jacqueline Boswell, 2019 "Yes this is very much a dance the was very popular in the 60's." ** 7. KingNoble Martin, 2015 "You should change the name of the step because it is already belonging to all of the Shriners who actually do the real camel walk so out of respect to them and us. Love the dance but please call it something else ok.
** Reply 8. Benoit Guerin, 2015 "@Dwayne Martin the camel walk is a charleston walk, It was already used in the 20's - 30's.
** 9. Hazel Eyes, 2018 "You done a excellent job teaching the camel walk. I remember the camel walk dance from the 70s. You are very good.
** 10. David Windhorst, 2019 "Well, that was awesome enough. :>)
Researching the history of the camel walk brought me here. I heard it mentioned in a rockabilly song from the 50's; didn't realize it dates all the way back to ragtime and the Roaring '20's.
** 11. Quilter Nancy, 2020 "My mother, who would have been 90 this year, demo’d this dance to me when I was in high school.
She said she and her friends did it when they were in HS! 1946? She was almost as good as you!
** 13. Liams World, Sept. 2021 "And the camel walk is backkkkkkkkkk🔥🔥🔥🔥🥳"**** SHOWCASE VIDEO #6: How to 3 Step Walk TikTok Dance Tutorial [2021]
Lord Hec., July 20, 2021