text: what were some of the popular dances in the 1960's?? its for a history project...i need to know!!! the duck in 1965 - jackie lee....  1960 - the twist, chuby checker  the pony - 1961, chuby checker  the bird - 1963, dee dee sharp, i think.  how about 1962 - the mash potato, dee dee sharp.  there was the watusi, the ska, and the monkey.  1962 - the locomotion, little eva  1960 - the twist, chubby checker  1967 - the camel walk, james brown  1969 - the popcorn, james brown  the movie hairspray, it had all those dances in it.  you can see a few more dances from that era - even though the movie is actually set in 1980 - in the "dancing in the street" scene (ray charles' performance of "shake a tail feather") in the first blues brothers movie. i also recommend the "chicago black dance" chapter in robert pruter's _chicago soul_.  and don't forget, if you watch the old reruns of "the addams family" on nick at nite, once in a while gomez does his favorite, "the freddie".  1962 - "peppermint twist", joey dee; "twist and shout", isley brothers  watusi "the wah-watusi", orlons  1963 monkey "monkey time", major lance  1964 swim "c'mon and swim", bobby freeman  1965 jerk "the jerk", the larks  1967 boogaloo "boogaloo down broadway", fantastic johnny c  1969 popcorn "the popcorn", "mother popcorn", james brown  1970 funky chicken "do the funky chicken", rufus thomas  there was a dance called the tighten up and the horse. the horse was a take off on the camel walk. it was very difficult to tell the difference between these two dances. there were hundreds, if not thousands, of dances in the '60's. not all of them caught on nationally. the post didn't say very popular dances nationwide, it just said dances from the '60's associated with a song. the shotgun by junior walker is another good example. people in my town did that dance all the time.  during the early and mid '60's there were new dances every week.  as new songs came out so did a dance to go along with it.  only a few dances lasted more than just a few weeks.  usually when the song faded so did the dance. the was the hully gully, the box, sissy strut, the james brown, and many others that were not very popular and faded with the songs.  i don't know where the dances went but they slowed down in the '70's and almost came to a halt in the '80's.