Shakira and Britney Spears Pop's Greatest Dance Crazes

Hello, I'm TV's Robert Webb and these are some of pop's greatest dance crazes.

At number 27, it's Shakira and Wyclef Jean

with their likable pop ditty Hips Don't Lie,

which, if you think about it, is absolutely true.

They don't say very much at all. Good point.

# She make a man wanna speak Spanish... #

Shakira. Like Rihanna, except with talent.

Take it away, Shake-o.

# Oh, baby when you talk like that

# You make a woman go mad

# So be wise and keep on... #

The song just made her show off.

She was basically saying, "Look at me. Belly dance for four minutes.

"Belly dance to the left. I'm going to belly dance to the right.

"I'm going to belly dance with my shoulder. I'm going to belly dance with my boobs.

"I'm going to belly dance with my head." She's a belly dance explosion.

Shakira, Shakira.

# Oh, baby when you talk like that You make a woman go mad

# So be wise and keep on Reading the signs of my body... #

Shakira's dancing style is hypnotic, it really is.

I mean, even as a choreographer, a dancer,

when I watch her, you just kind of zone right into that belly button

and you go, "How is she doing that?"

It kind of has a life of its own.

# Oh, the attraction The tension

# Don't you see, baby... #

She used to do belly-dancing in the convent that she went to school in

and apparently the nuns were very supportive. Who knew?

Obviously nuns in Colombia are quite different to the nuns that we know.

# Never really knew that she could dance like this... #

Note that Wyclef is adhering to the Golden Rule -

do not attempt the Shakira

unless you are a fully-trained professional.

Her hips go like this.

You think of a snake, right? I will attempt it now.

So it kind of goes up and back down. That was really bad.

They kind of... I can't do it. They go up like this and back down.

And when your arms are doing all of this sort of stuff, you know,

at the same time in opposition to your hips, it's tough.

# I'm on tonight But my hips don't lie

# And I'm starting to feel you, boy... #

I work at Pineapple Studios

and I remember when Shakira came out with that video,

that belly dancing class that we had in Pineapple,

like, I had 100 students plus. It was...

crazy how many people wanted to move like Shakira.

MIDDLE EASTERN-STYLE MUSIC PLAYS

Belly dancing classes have long been popular with ladies of a certain age.

How erotic is it? Does it drive men wild?

I wouldn't say it drives men wild.

Speaking on behalf of mankind, I have to say I disagree.

Are you turned on?

Not really.

Come on, that's pretty good.

It's very seductive, very sensuous.

I've attempted it with varying degrees of success.

The main component of doing belly dancing

is forget any concept of personal dignity.

That is the absolute bedrock.

And once you've got beyond that, then it's remarkably simple.

Wise words, Katie. I'm off now to clean the fluff from my belly button.

Now back to a more innocent time

when teenage pop stars could dress provocatively in sexy school uniforms

and invite the listener to physically hit them.

Yes, at number 26 it's Britney Spears

and Hit Me Baby One More Time.

It was her debut video that had American mums up in arms

and American dads pretending to be up in arms while being secretly very pleased indeed.

Oh, men!

BELL RINGS

# Oh, baby baby

# Oh, baby baby... #

Britney Spears with Hit Me Baby.

It was... It was every man's dream.

# Oh, baby baby... #

She came in as this little schoolgirl,

but had this very innocent vibe,

but had her shirt rolled up and had her little short skirt on

and it was like, "Britney, you not foolin' us."

When you're making a video, you try and take a real-life situation

and then just sort of caricature it a little bit.

And Britney's idea was quite simply that she wanted to be in a school and be thinking of boys.

And then Britney said, "Why do I dress up in a school girl's outfit?"

And I'm sitting there thinking, "That sounds a bit racy to me," but you know, we went with it.

There's something quite wrong about it, isn't there?

You're watching it going, "No.

"She's dressed as a schoolgirl."

# Hit me baby one more time... #

I loved when Britney first came out. It was just dance, you know.

She did like, double pirouettes in that video.

Well Britney is all about the imaginary whip, OK?

So she's very...

Flick. She is all about that. All slashy, slashy, slashy.

I didn't say slutty.

The dance was a jazz-inspired dance.

It was just a lot of arms and just what pop became.

Britney was the face of pop at that point.

I think when you hear that song, you just want to strut around and have a dance.

She owned it, you know?

# Hit me baby one more time. #

It was hot.

# Hit me baby one more time. #

Hit Me Baby One More Time sold over nine million copies worldwide,

propelling Britney to pop superstardom and her devoted fans embraced her sexy St Trinian's look.

Britney's fans copied everything about her from what she wore, how she danced.

I think she created her own cult following.

All the girls used to have the knee-high socks

and a little skirt rolled up and shirt and tie.

You felt really cool cos Britney did it.

We thought it was wicked.

We all wanted fluffy pens and over-knee socks.

We used to have talent shows at school and a lot of people would

enter as Britney and know all the dance moves.

We'd go along every lunchtime, pay our 50p and hope for the best!

# Give me a sign Hit me baby one more time. #

Since this routine, Britney's glittering career has pirouetted out

of control several times, but with each comeback

she demonstrates why she's still queen of the dance floor.

# Hit me baby one more time. #

Her-ha! Her-ha!

Herrrr-ha!

Don't worry. I'm not off my nut on Meow Meow,

I'm performing one of the most popular dances of the early 1980s.

If you were a coal miner, the '80s were at best so-so

but if you were a fan of dressing up like a dandy,

it really was the decade to be alive.

Stand and deliver!

I loved Adam Ant.

I loved the way he made his face up and his movements, and I loved him because he was individual.

# I'm the dandy highwayman who you're too scared to mention... #

I have a confession to make - I was absolutely obsessed with Adam Ant,

and I desperately, desperately wanted to be him.

Absolutely adore the look. I think that was an era to be proud of.

# Stand and deliver

# Your money or your life. #

He was making his songs

into a fabulous piece of theatre.

He understood something essential which is, "I'm here to entertain you."

But it was Adam's magical transformation from punk pretender

to the Prince of Panto Pop that cemented his place in our top 50.

# Don't you ever,

# Don't you ever... #

Prince Charming was just a sort of dance craze that I tried to start,

by dressing up and looking a bit wild.

# Don't you ever, don't you ever... #

There's been so many great dance crazes,

but being a child of the Eighties,

I've got to say my favourite is Adam Ant, Prince Charming.

The dance is made up of four key simple moves,

and each move represents Adam.

So this move represents courage.

The second move was about pride.

The third move is humour. And the final message is flair.

Which Adam had tonnes of.

Prince Charming, hey! Prince Charming, hey!

1, 2, 3, 4...

We had probably about 40 or 50 dancers, a huge set, it looked

like walking into a Hollywood movie set, it was fantastic, and we had the wonderful, most beautiful Diana Dors.

The dance was a little bit tricky, and if you watch the video closely,

I wouldn't say she exactly gets the moves, but we decided in the spirit of things that that would be OK.

# Don't you ever... #

There was a whole feeling, a whole era, a whole time where I don't think that could ever happen again.

It's just very, very special.

# Don't you ever lower yourself... #

And our next dance comes from erccentric New Yorker, Lady GaGa.

In tribute to her infamous meat dress, I've wrapped my hand in some rashers of streaky bacon. See?

It's what I call my pork glove, and very comfortable it is, too.

I'm also wearing chicken underpants, but probably best not show you them now. Here's GaGa.

# Ooh-oooh-oh-oh-oh,

# Caught in a bad romance... #

Oh my God, I'm a huge fan of Lady GaGa.

I'm a huge Lady GaGa fan.

-Huge!

-# Caught in a bad romance... #

-She's saying,

if you do it, do it big and make a spectacle of it.

She don't care.

She's doing what she wants to do and I'm so into that.

# I want your loving, I want your revenge

# You and me could write a bad romance... #

I just love the choreography. And it's now.

It's sort of taking Madonna and twisting it all around.

GaGa has this little claw thing and she calls people monsters, and

I went to the concert and everyone's literally doing this claw.

When I came up with the claw in Bad Romance

it was because she played the record for me,

and it felt painful

and the first thing my hand did was tense up,

because when you want to love somebody and you can't have them, it feels like that.

-# I want your lovin'... #

-What's happening,

"Ooh, ra, la-la-la," what's happening to me?

Then I was obsessed with the twist and Chubby Checker, so I then I did everything.

She's not the best dancer, but she has

a very specific way of moving,

so a choreographer captures those awkward moments and makes them into dance equences.

She wasn't a dancer, but she, like millions of young girls, took dance class.

You know, you learn a few things very early, a pas de bourree, a kick-ball-change, a hitchy koo.

So I put these classic dance steps in her choreography

and I said, "Well, I know that I'll make you a dancer."

# Can't read my, can't read my, no, he can't read my poker face.... #

With Poker Face, it was about the club and the house, and there was just something

that came to me when I was like, "My-my-my poker face," you know.

# My-my-my poker face... #

She does this sort of stuff a lot, doesn't she?

A bit of that.

It's pretty owlish and cool, isn't it?

And if in doubt, just take some more clothes off.

It works for me.

It's just like mad things, they're actually simple, but great fun,

exuberant, camp, out there, in-your-face dance routines.

# RedOne... #

Lady GaGa's look is as famous as her music, and her piece de resistance was her scandalous meat dress.

# I've had a little bit too much... #

I think she has amazing fashion sense, and I love that it's so crazy

and so different that it really makes you stop and think.

Whether GaGa is living art or just a frustrated butcher,

she's inspired fans around the world to copy her style and moves.

It's just a shame she stinks of carrion.

Everyone wants to be GaGa, don't they?

And they all want to be able to dance like GaGa.

You look on the internet and there's so many sites, "We'll teach you the GaGa steps."

It has been a phenomenon. I mean, when I saw

a seven-year-old do the Bad Romance dance, absolutely was I affected.

I'm like, "my choreography is being done all around the world."

That just inspired me to know how powerful we are as choreographers.

# Just, just, just dance. #

Often, the best dances have the instructions built into the lyrics.

One thinks of Whip My Hair, by Willow Smith, and Sit Down, by James.

Our next track is much the same.

At number 23 we have DJ Casper and his Cha-cha Slide.

Clap, clap-clap, clap your hands.

All right now, we're going to do the basic step.

To the left. Take it back now, y'all.

One hop this time...

So you go, slide to the right, slide to the left.

One hop this time.

Two hops this time.

And this, cha-cha.

To the left.

Take it back now, y'all.

It's just slide to the right, it's just really basic moves.

One hop this time.

Two hops this time. Now cha-cha. I don't even know it that great,

but I know if you put that on in a club

now tonight, I would be able to do it, because it says it.

To the left. Take it back now, y'all.

Let go to work.

Let go to work. Let's go to work.

-But it depends where you work.

-It does.

Most people that go to work aren't happy.

It's like, slide to the left.

I'm happy. Slide to the right.

-Woohoo!

-Let's to go to work.

Oh, so boring.

I'm out of here, y'all. Peace.

The 1980s were a time of division and strife.

Geoffrey Howe's 1981 austerity budget led to mass unemployment

and the destruction of Britain's manufacturing sector.

To counterbalance this, Black Lace released a single that had everyone in Britain doing this.

So the Eighties basically evened out, then.

After a hard day's work, here I am at the Batley Frontier Club, and

we're going to ask a few people now why they've come to see Black Lace.

-Just pure, simple fun, good, clean fun.

-The party atmosphere, yes.

-What's your favourite song of theirs?

-Agadoo-doo-doo.

-Can you sing a bit more for us, perhaps?

-I only the title of it, like, I don't know the rest of it.

# Ag-a-doo-doo-doo, push pineapple, shake the tree... #

Agadoo was...

pretty much the song that, if you are 30 or thereabouts,

defined every childhood party you ever went to.

Aga-doo...

Doo-doo, push pineapple...

Shake the tree...

Da-da-uh-uh-uh...

Push pineapple, grind coffee...

To the left, to the right...

Jump up and down and to the knees...

Come and dance every night to the hula melodies.

# Sing the hula melodies... #

Aga-doo-doo-doo was another don't, don't, don't for me, darling.

# I met a hula mistress somewhere in Waikiki.

# She was selling pineapple, playing ukelele... #

Black Lace were two blokes from deepest Yorkshire, and Agadoo was their biggest UK hit.

But the cheesy chart-meisters have always divided opinion.

I mean, as a dancer, you know, any...

Well, hold on. I was going to say I embrace anything that gets people on the floor, but there is a limit.

Black Lace had mullet haircuts, they were a bit naff, they were like

DJs you would find in a Warrington disco club.

It's easy to mock, really very easy in this case, but these lads have paid their showbiz dues.

You know, they'd done the camps, they'd done the resorts, they knew their audience.

The wrinkles on those men's faces are not merely a sign of age, they're battle scars.

They know, when they walk into that room full of nanas and babies,

that somebody's got to get this party started.

# Agadoo-doo-doo, push pineapple, shake the tree... #

Agadoo has been voted the worst song of all time, but it sold

over a million copies worldwide, helped by the easy to perform dance.

But where exactly did the moves come from?

Agadoo the song actually

is French, it originates from France.

But the dance moves originate from a Derby nightclub.

The rumour is, Black Lace turned up to perform, and the bar staff

had come out with some kind of dance, and then it took off from there.

So, if you want to blame anybody for Agadoo, blame the French and Derby.

Consider it done, my friend.

So, that's your lot.

If, like me, you spent the whole show dancing along to each and every song,

then, like me, you probably stink.

Take a shower. Seriously, have a shower. Now.

Goodbye!