1000’s of miles from Tennessee, Australians are lining as much as do the Nutbush.
The boot-scooting dance, inspired by the 1973 hit “Nutbush City Limits” by Ike and Tina Turner, is a cultural staple down under, but its origins are a little bit of a mystery.
The queen of rock and roll, who tragically died this week at 83 of natural causes, penned the track about her southern hometown of Nutbush, Tennessee.
Upon Turner’s passing, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the 12-time Grammy winner created a “soundtrack to our lives.”
Jon Stratton, an adjunct professor on the University of South Australia’s School of Creative Industries, traces the dance’s beginnings to the Latest South Wales education department.
Educators realized dance is an efficient option to teach children in regards to the arts and get some exercise, he said.
“In NSW there appeared to be some sort of committee attempting to work out what sorts of dances primary school kids specifically should do as a part of physical education,” he told the Aussie outlet SBS News.
“What seems to have happened is that any person devised the Nutbush along the lines of the Madison (one other, barely more complex line dance),” he continued.
Its popularity quickly snowballed, fascinating classrooms across the country through the ’80s and ’90s.
“When it comes to teaching kids, it’s innocuous,” Stratton explained, adding that the beat is “very easy” to bounce to. “That’s to say, it’s not a track about love, it’s not a track about sex; it’s not a track about breakups or anything like that. So it doesn’t have that private quality to it.”
The easy footwork has turn out to be a convention at Australian parties and weddings, very similar to “YMCA” or the “Cha-Cha Slide” within the US.
Sarcastically, Turner’s performances of “Nutbush City Limits” never featured the Aussie dance moves.
While Stratton’s Nutbush theory has been challenged, there’s absolute confidence Australians love Turner’s tunes.
In actual fact, her 1989 hit “The Best” helped promote the nation’s rugby league.
Meanwhile, the 2018 Birdsville Big Red Bash music festival holds the Guinness World Record for the biggest Nutbush dance, drawing over 1,700 participants.
Recent attempts have threatened to topple the title-holder, with over 4,000 dancers appearing in an organized Nutbush dance last yr at the identical festival.
This July, 5,000 dancers are expected to participate, serving as each a tribute to the late music legend and a celebration of the track’s fiftieth anniversary.
Steve Donovan, the operations manager for the festival, told SBS News he’s “hoping for rather a lot more” than 5,000 people.
“We love our sort of traditions,” he added, saying Turner’s passing may bolster participation. “And I feel it’s just turn out to be a classic Australian tradition.”