I keep coming across what I can only call weird little 1950s novelty dances that were supposedly enormously popular among teenagers of the time. In the case of The Dig, I can't quite see it, myself, or even imagine it as a less-jaded teenager...but then I remember that the Bunny Hop was a genuine teenage fad during the same era, so anything is possible. The Dig was at least briefly regionally popular, appearing on Oklahoma Bandstand, the local version of the televised dance program, American Bandstand.
As described in the November 1958 issue of Dance Magazine by columnist Dorothea Duryea Ohl (daughter of the famous Oscar Duryea), The Dig was not a spontanous dance-floor innovation like its contemporary, the hand jive. It was choreographed by Oklahoma City dance instructor Jimmie Crowell:
The owner of a recording company wanted a dance for teen-agers to fit an as-yet-untitled number. He liked Jimmie's brainchild so much that he gave the same title to the record: The Dig, now on Chess label, Ken Kash Kwintet, No. 1699 (Flip side: Vicious Vodka)
Crowell died only a few years ago, after a long career as a dance instructor. Other than that Chess single, I can find no trace of the Ken Kash Kwintet. I suspect that they were an in-house group of Chess musicians pulled together for this recording.
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