Twerk

Twerking (/ˈtwɜːrkɪŋ/) is a type of dance originating as part of the bounce music scene of New Orleans in the late 1980s. Individually-performed, chiefly but not exclusively women, dancers move in a sexually-provocative manner throwing or thrusting their hips back or shaking their buttocks, often in a low squatting stance. Twerking is part of a larger set of characteristic moves unique to the New Orleans style of hip-hop known as "Bounce." Moves include "mixing," "exercising," the "bend over," the "shoulder hustle," "clapping," and "the wild wood" -- all recognized as "booty shaking" or "bounce." Twerking is but one choreographic gesture within bounce.

As a tradition shaped by local aid and pleasure clubs, block parties and second lines, the dance was central to "a historical situating of sissy bounce­­––bounce music as performed by artists from the New Orleans LGBTQ community that [led to] a meteoric rise in popularity post-[Hurricane Katrina after 2005]." After its appropriation by mainstream white recording artists Iggy Azalia and Miley Cyrus, the term was included in the Oxford English Dictionary. Meanwhile, news and social media posts parodied the dance due primarily to a stereotypical low-class attribution to performances by black girls and women, derogatorily called "ratchet". However twenty years earlier, twerking had widespread appeal in black party culture throughout the hip-hop/rap region known as The Dirty South, including New Orleans, Memphis, Virginia Beach, Miami, Atlanta, and Houston. Contemporary black women in the music and music video industry performed the dance prior to Miley Cyrus's historic performance at MTV's Video Music Awards in August 25, 2013 including mega-artists Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, and Beyoncé, whose roots are in Houston. Twerking was a top trending meme and topic of debate since 2013. That year it became the top "What is" search on the Google search engine.

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