Does anybody do the chicken dance? [Archive]

pygmalion

03-06-2004, 11:32 AM

I was shocked to find this on the web -- instructions for doing the chicken dance. Lots of fun at parties, the article said. What!?! The chicken dance? :shock: Limbo, okay. Conga lines, well, if you have to. But the chicken dance? Does anybody really do it?

http://www.realbeer.com/edu/chickendance.php

Sagitta

03-06-2004, 12:03 PM

I actually did this as a little kid. :)

pygmalion

03-06-2004, 12:15 PM

LOL. Sorry to hear that. :wink: :lol:

I'm just kidding. I actually didn't realize that people do this dance -- I thought it went out with the hokey pokey. Or do people do that one, too?

Phil Owl

03-06-2004, 12:19 PM

I'll do it under only one condition: GUNPOINT!

Sagitta

03-06-2004, 12:20 PM

Did that as a little kid too and the old timers do play this one too now and then...

Bronzestudent

03-06-2004, 01:55 PM

The chicken dance!! Keeps popping up just when you thought you've finally forgotten about it! I first learned this dance at a Minor League baseball game. Their mascot was a chicken, and they played the song and the mascot taught us the dance.

Easy to learn, and the kids liked it. Ok, maybe I liked it just a little bit too...

Anybody else learned silly dances like that at some kind of event? My favorite has to be the motions to "Pharoah, Pharoah" we sang at the camp I was a counselor at. Ok, not really a dance, but if the chicken dance is a dance, then "Pharoah, Pharoah" should fit in that category too.

dancin_feet

03-07-2004, 11:12 PM

Have been known to do it, while extremely drunk at a party! :oops:

Then there are the others like the bus stop, maccarena which I am happy to admit to.

dancersdreamland

03-08-2004, 09:47 AM

I did the chicken dance a lot as a young child and it always seems to pop up at rollerskating parties and sometimes at weddings. I learned some lyrics to go with the insance music...

"I don't want to be a chicken..."
"I don't want to be a duck..."
"All I wanna do is..."

I cannot finish the last line as it is NOT appropriate, but you can probably figure it out...

Tasek

03-08-2004, 11:11 AM

Alright, confession time, did it three weeks ago, but since it was carnaval and it is a carnaval classic i'm not ashamed of admitting that particular instance.

Ofcourse that excuse doesn't hold when I was in London last december with some friends, stone cold sober in public on piccadilly square, scatting the song and dancing it 8) :banana: :bouncy: :roll: 8)

.
.
.

alright people, stop laughing already! :!: !

dnquark

03-08-2004, 01:12 PM

Yes, the chicken dance!! My mom taught it to me back in Russian when I was, like, 6. I've done it every now and then at the Stanford Jammix, in between waltzing, lindy-ing, polka-ing... I love the semi-controlled mayhem aspect of it, when a circle of 50-60 people, half of them not knowing what they are doing, is trying to change direction from running one way to running the other.

It's fun, everyone can do it (as opposed to stuff like jitterbug stroll or random disco line dances from the 70's)

SDsalsaguy

03-08-2004, 01:33 PM

...alright people, stop laughing already! :!: !
Do I have to? :lol:

Pacion

03-08-2004, 02:38 PM

...alright people, stop laughing already! :!: !
Do I have to? :lol:

Do you have any pictures/video that you wish to share :wink: :lol:

All sorts of craziness goes on at Piccadilly Circus anyway, so you probably looked "normal" :lol:

Tasek

03-08-2004, 02:42 PM

Well, if you really can't stop SD go ahead, and this way I can bask in the feeling of knowing that I definately brought some laughter into somebodies day :D

Don't think anybody in our group made picture of us doing the chickendance, but I have seen someone random tourist videotaping us at one point, don't recall what we were doing exactly at that time, but could be any number of things; chickendance, a rueda, couple of us singing bohemain rhapsody, a couple dancing a waltz to me singing 'wild rover' and just general silliness; it was a fun day :)

Pacion

03-08-2004, 02:46 PM

Thanks for the permission :wink:

ShyDancer

03-08-2004, 03:23 PM

OH dearie! :oops: :oops: :oops:

The chicken dance is a favorite of mine ......I even have it as a ringtone on my phone :oops: :oops: :lol: :lol:

Maybe it stems from my Italian upbringing where it was played numerous times during dances and parties of any kind and everyone regardless of age did it! Its a whole lotta fun to watch your 83 year old grandma shake her thing :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I did at one point know the actual words to it but I cant remember them for the life of me right now (maybe its my embarrassment placing a menatl block on me)

Vince A

03-08-2004, 03:42 PM

pygmalion

03-08-2004, 04:24 PM

Amen to that, Vince! No way. Absolutely no way.

Vince A

03-08-2004, 04:57 PM

Amen to that, Vince! No way. Absolutely no way.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Christina75

03-11-2004, 01:31 PM

chicken dance...that reminds me, I think accordian players are sexy. :wink:

Christina

pygmalion

03-11-2004, 02:30 PM

:shock: Accordion? Oh my goodness. :lol: :wink: Tell me you're thinking about one in particular. Must be.

Christina75

03-11-2004, 02:40 PM

why Lawrence Welk of course, who else? :mrgreen: :wink:

Christina

pygmalion

03-11-2004, 02:42 PM

ROFLOL!

Taita

03-11-2004, 04:22 PM

Chicken Dance.....

hmmmm........

Having witnessed a number of these, I can only guess, this is one of those things that is a little too caucasion for my tastes that I'll never quite understand (kinda like...... Polka, or Lawrence Welk, or MUZAK ) :wink:

.....back to lurk mode.....

pygmalion

03-11-2004, 04:34 PM

Taita

03-11-2004, 04:50 PM

I wasn't thinking caucasian. I was thinking wrong age group. Like preschool, or senior center would work. But nothing in between. LOL.

And, btw, I grew up on Lawrence welk. Saturday evenings, it was either that or HeeHaw. eeek!

LOL, Chicken Dance seems to cross all gender and age groups. I've witnessed them at events as casual as nightclub outings and as formal as wedding receptions. The only commonality I could tell was that only caucasions did this and none of them could explain the origin of the Chicken Dance. Coincidentally, these same folks seem to be fond of things like Polka.

P.S. I too grew up catching a bit of HeeHaw, just before Kung Foo theater 8)

....back to lurk mode...

pygmalion

03-11-2004, 05:20 PM

Now you know I have to google. I wonder ... where did that chicken dance come from? LOL. :wink:

Christina75

03-12-2004, 08:11 AM

I'd be interested to see what google has to say. I didn't really grow up on Lawrence Welk, but it was something that was always on at my grandparents house. Sometimes I catch it on PBS and will stop and watch for a minute just for a little nostalgia. When I saw the thread on the chicken dance, that accordian music immediately started in my head and couldn't help but think of Lawrence Welk. lol I grew up here in Alabama (where HeeHaw is a television staple) but my grandparents are from Wisconsin and at 75, they can still do quite an impressive polka. Every time I've seen the chicken dance or the polka done I've either been at an Oktoberfest celebration or with my Wisconsin relatives, so I always assumed those dances came to the US from Germany or Scandinavia.

now what came first...the chicken dance or the egg?
:D Christina

pygmalion

03-12-2004, 08:38 AM

I did try to google it yesterday, and I suspect the story is deep and mysterious. LOL. One source suggested that the chicken dance comes from the Basque region of Spain :shock: because it's always included in Basque-American events. Another site attributed it to someplace in the US in the fifties. And apparently, there was a chicken dance song released sometime in the 70's. Bottom line -- I don't think anybody knows for sure, and if they do, they're not telling. LOL.