The biggest dance craze right now is the Harlem Shake dance and it's taking over the internet in viral video format, making us almost totally forget about the Gangnam dance. South Korean's own K-pop singer PSY gained popularity with his hit "Gangnam Style", which crossed over into the U.S. dance charts. Some people get intimidated by new dance crazes, in the past you had to have some type of coordination to do the Hustle, the Electric Slide, Country Line Dancing or the Macarena. The new Harlem Shake dance requires no coordination at all.
A recent YouTube trends report update shows that the video is up to 175 million views as of Feb.15. Not everyone is a fan of the new goofy dance that has taken the internet by storm in a matter of days. Many note the disparities between the modern version of the dance and the popular 2000 version of the Harlem Shake. The dance went mainstream in 2001 when it was featured in G-Dep's music video, Let's Get It, featuring P.Diddy.
This new Harlem Shake dance differs from actual original version of the dance that was created in Harlem, New York back in 1981. It was originally called the "albee", named after an alcoholic who went by the name "AlB" who performed the dance at the annual "streetball" tournament, Entertainer's Basketball Classic at Rucker Park. AlB said that the Harlem Shake is "a drunken shake anyway, it's an alcoholic shake, but it's fantastic, everybody appreciates it. And it's glowing with glory. And it's respected." As AlB tells it, "It was a drunken dance, you know, from the mummies, in the tombs. That's what the mummies used to do. They was all wrapped up and taped up. So they couldn't really move, all they could do was shake."
Actually, the dance has origins from an Ethiopian (Abyssinian) dance known as Eskista. Harlem has a 200 year cultural connection to Abyssinia, including one of the oldest African American churches and landmarks, the Abyssinian Baptist Church.
The current Harlem Shake viral movement became popular this month when a video blogger named "Filthy Frank" posted a silly video of four guys dressed up in costumes thrusting and gyrating around in seizure-like form. The video caught attention more recently although it's an older video and more and more people are uploading their own version of the "dance" called the Harlem Shake. Employees at Facebook got in on the fun, loading up their own Harlem Shake thirty second video.
