Boogaloo/Electric boogaloo dancing videos and lessons

An interpretive and loose dance style, the Boogaloo began as a mixture of the African American, Cuban, Latino, and Puerto Rican music and dance cultures. Blending jump blues, R&B, doo wop, son montuno, guaracha, mambo, and soul, the Bogaloo became a part of the shared taste of New York City’s culture. Although it originated in the 1950s, the Boogaloo did not become vastly popular with mainstream America until its appearance on the television show American Bandstand in the 1960s.

The music features a mid-tempo looping melody that acts as the anchoring rhythm to the dance. The footwork is similar to Pachanga, is counted over the eight beat patterns, and, similar to jive, contains many fast motions. The Latin based form is called Boogaloo, whereas the more funk-oriented version is called Electric Boogaloo.

The Electric Boogaloo is an evolved sub-genre that was started by the dance group “Electronic Boogaloo Lockers” in 1978. This group first performed on television in November of 1978 and performed the dance to a more funk-oriented music. The group, hailing from Fresno, California, consited of Tick’n Will Green, Darnel “Twist-o Don” McDowell, and Sammy “Boogaloo Sam” Solomon.

There are several common moves in the Boogaloo and Electric Boogaloo, which include body rolls, worming, puppet, leg rolls, twist-o-flex, neck-o-flex, old man, romeo twist, and the walk-out.