Since we are getting close to Thanksgiving, how about carving up some
foot action to go with your turkey. Want to be the hit of your Thanksgiving gathering, get everyone up for a fun dance.
I’m talking about a dance that became popular in the early 1900s called the Turkey Trot. It developed in the Scott Joplin music era. It is done usually to ragtime music and its characteristic moves are done with feet apart with a rise and on the ball of the foot followed by a drop upon the heel. See demonstration video below. I've also added an extra video for those of you ready to go full turkey, like the pros.
The Turkey Trot got its name because the steps of the dance modeled the movements of a turkey. Turkeys take short, jerky steps, and so will you, when you learn to do this dance. The Turkey Trot is probably the least graceful of dances. That didn’t matter at all. The public fully embraced this quirky dance because it got everybody up to dance, made them laugh and they had fun doing it.
The Turkey Trot even has a dark side. Apparently, the Vatican thought the dance was too offensive. Many conservative people in society felt the same way and claimed this dance to be immoral and even tried to get it banned. Of course, this only made the dance gain in popularity. Courts got into the action too, and it was reported that dancers were fined for disorderly conduct. And if you were caught doing the Turkey Trot at work (on your lunch break) you would get fired!
No matter how you wish to celebrate your Thanksgiving, we hope you have a great holiday. For the adventurous dancers out there, I have included Little Eva's song, "Let's Turkey Trot," just in case you feel like doing your own version of Turkey Trot.
The Fordney Foundation wishes you all a wonderful Thanksgiving. As you gather with friends and family, may it be a day of peace and gratitude throughout the universe.
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**We have received contributions from individuals who would like to have a dear relative or friend who passed on remembered that loved to dance or was a dance aficionado. We call these memorial contributions. Perhaps you would like to have someone memorialized in this manner. Make a donation and give us their name. We will soon put on our website a yellow brick road to add their name to a brick as a memorial to that person. This contribution will assist future generations of dancers and help keep young people more positive and healthy.
Thought Of The Week:
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." – John F. Kennedy
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