Capering & Kickery

Hand Jive Style: Clapping it out

A quick postscript to last week's post about the hand jive performed on the Johnny Otis Show in the late 1950s:

Towards the end of the song, there are three clapping sequences that can be used for an extremely low-key hand jive.  These can be seen in the video embedded in the earlier post.  Here are descriptions of each:

(1) Johnny himself!  At one point he stops playing the piano and simply sits there clapping to the music, accenting the even beats:

one CLAP three CLAP five CLAP seven CLAP

He briefly transitions to a finger-snap instead of a clap, keeping the same rhythm.

(2) One of the McKinley sisters (sadly, I don't know which is which, but the one at the back), gets a slightly more complex rhythm going on beat 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7:

CLAP two CLAP CLAP five CLAP CLAP eight

(3) The other McKinley sister and leader Marie Adams have an even more interesting beat going, with pairs of fast claps on "2&" and "6&" in a 1-2&3-4-5-6&7-8 count:

one CLAPCLAP three CLAP five CLAPCLAP seven CLAP

This one can be a little bit tricky to get.  It matches the first four beats of the music very well but there's a slightly different syncopation on the second four beats, so it feels odd at first until one gets used to clapping with a different accent.

The second and third sequences are done simultaneously on the show to very nice effect.  It would be interesting to split a group in thirds and have all three going at once.

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Previous hand jive posts:
Hand Jive Basics (includes the Grease sequence)
Hand Jive Style: Three Tons of Joy (includes the video from which these clapping sequences were taken)

Hand Jive Style: Three Tons of Joy

I described a basic hand jive sequence, as shown in the popular 1978 movie-musical, Grease, a while back, but it's not the only version.  I heard the sad news of "Willie and the Hand Jive" artist Johnny Otis' death today, so in his memory, let's look at the hand jive variations demonstrated on his show in the late 1950s by Three Tons of Joy, a trio featuring R&B singer Marie Adams with sisters Sadie and Francine McKinley.  Here's the video clip of the show from which I've taken the sequences described below:

Hand Jive Basics

I have a great nostalgic love for the 1978 movie-musical Grease, and particularly for the big "Born to Hand Jive" scene at the school dance. I usually avoid analyzing my favorite movies from a dance historian's perspective -- it can be painful -- but I couldn't resist looking into the hand jive. I found a few surprises in my research, but for this post I'll just stick to the basics, with more background to follow in the future.

Table Talk

One of those wacky little 1960s dance books, The Hullabaloo Discothèque Dance Book (Parallax Publishing, 1966; Scholastic Books, 1967), contains three novelty dances created especially for it.  Table Talk is a sort of half-speed poor man's version of the 1950s hand jive and is useful in the same contexts: sitting down, around a table, too crowded or tired to move, or for people who can't move their legs at speed or at all. 

Hullabaloo was a television show, airing on NBC in 1965 and 1966.  There are plenty of clips from it on YouTube, and you can actually purchase compilations on DVD.  Along with musical acts, it featured a small cast of dancers whose most notable alumni are Michael Bennett and Donna McKechnie, the director/choreographer and original Cassie of the musical A Chorus Line.

I have my doubts about whether Table Talk was ever actually done other than in the photo shoot for the book, but since sitting-down arm and hand dances still have their uses, here it is. 

Hands are on lap or hanging loosely at sides when not otherwise occupied.

Count       Move
1,2            Extend right arm, palm down
3,4            Extend left arm, palm down
5,6            Right hand to left shoulder
7,8            Left hand to right shoulder
1,2            Left hand to left knee
3,4            Right hand to right knee
5,6            Clap hands twice
7,8            Extend left arm, palm down, and look at your hand
1,2            Extend right arm, palm down, and look at your hand
3,4            Turn left palm up and look at it
5,6            Turn right palm up and look at it
7,8            Clap hands twice
1,2            Bend left arm upward (making a fist) and tap right fist on left elbow twice
3,4            Bend right arm upward (making a fist) and tap left fist on right elbow twice
5,6            Palms down, pass left hand over right twice
7,8            Palms down, pass right hand over left twice
1,2            Clap twice

You can then restart from the beginning with the same pattern, though the counts won't match up since the dance has an irregular length.  The pattern is easy enough that with one person who knows the dance it shouldn't be hard for everyone else to pick it up anyway.  The book also suggests that you can "make up as many variations as you wish, with partners following each other a beat late, à la Simon Sez [sic]."

I have no musical recommendation for Table Talk other than to use something lively and fast from the late 1960s.