What goes Bump and Grind in the night?

Bump and grind is a vintage classic burlesque style, with to surprising history an origin. Learn all about it in this blog!

The dance moves were inspired by belly dance, specifically by the three belly dancers of Little Egypt and their 1893 Hootchy Kootchy show “The Streets Of Cairo” at the World's Fair in America. Their dancing style can be described with the same words with which the dancers were announced at the World's Fair: “When she dances, every fiber and every tissue in her entire anatomy shakes like a jar of jelly from your grandmother's Thanksgiving dinner.”

The bare bellies and jiggling breasts and buttocks shocked the American people and inspired numerous burlesque artists to make it their own style. The classic belly dance moves and costumes took on a new form when combined with the typical cheeky burlesque facial expression and comic elements. Bump and Grind became wildly popular, especially in the 1950s and still has many fans today.

Burlesque bump and grind is an energetic style with an in-your-face attitude. The genre revolves around fluid hip movements, interspersed with bright accents and jiggly female forms.

  • For starters, you have the bumps, short and strong hip movements to the beat of the music/drum. These movements can be made sideways, backwards or forwards, with the hips or pelvis. Especially the latter are very typical of the style and immediately give the dance a mischievous edge.

  • On the other hand, you have the grinds, so seductively explained by the dictionary as “an erotic rotation of the hip and pelvis.” These hip movements make the dance very feminine and appropriate for slower musical pieces.

  • It also uses other belly dance moves, such as shimmies with breasts and buttocks.

  • Classic burlesque moves and strip elements are of course not to be left out.

  • Bump and grind dancers often play with high and low movements, for example by dancing while crouching down.

  • All classic bump and grind moves can be varied in different ways (standing, crouching, hunched over, …).

Bump and grind is a very musical style, where the rhythms of the music are at the forefront. A good bump and grind song has a strong beat, interspersed with slower musical pieces. Playing with the rhythms, such as a slow bump or several fast bumps in a row, makes for smooth variation and challenging choreography.

Want to hear a classic bump ‘n’ grind song? Give ‘Bumps and grind by Sonny Lester Orcherstra’ a listen.

The bump and grind performers of the golden age of burlesque wore extravagant and heavily decorated evening gowns with long gloves, which were taken off during the first part of the act. For most of the act, they danced in a triangle bra (without underwire), a matching thong and a panel skirt to finish it off. Sometimes several panel skirts were worn on top of each other, often with a matching shimmy belt (like belly dancers). The costumes usually had frills and swaying fabrics that emphasized both fluid and strong movements.

Tempest Storm and Betty Rowland are icons of the '40s-'50s known for their bump and grind.

  • The costumes of burlesque – Coleen Scott
    The burlesque handbook by Jo Weldon
    Pretty things by Liz Goldwyn
    Burlesque, the art of tease by Dita Von Teese
    https://bluestockingmagazine.com/2014/08/12/history-of-burlesque-little-egypt-and-the-chicago-world-fair/
    http://www.mortaljourney.com/2010/11/all-trends/hoochie-coochie-dance
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(dancer)
    https://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2egypt1.htm

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What goes Bump and Grind in the night?

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