There’s a long association between dance and monkeys, and for the purposes of this article I'm going to create scientific heresy by lumping together monkeys, apes and humans. Just for clarity: F.Y.I. Monkeys have tails, apes don't, so apes may have a tale to tell, but they don't have the tell-tail tail that monkeys have. Whether it's a flange of gorillas, a tribe of humans or a whoop of chimpanzees there are interesting themes hiding within the swirling mix of our cultural soup regarding monkeys and dance.
Did you know the Monkey was a fad dance in the USA originating in 1963. That's the year US President Kennedy was assassinated, Dr Who first materialised on TV and the Beatles released Twist and Shout.
Fad dances, the viral memes of dance, came along so frequently in the 1960s that there was a fad of fad dances, fueled by affordable 7” singles, transistor radios and the new teenage market. At this time a cultural shift occurred from partner dance to solo dancing. The Beatles Twist and Shout could almost be seen as the final nail in the coffin for social partner dancing in the UK, which remained buried for nearly two decades until resurrected by Modern Jive and Salsa in the 1980s. Later Ballroom and Latin received a little C.P.R. from a T.V. show that shall remain nameless, and their sequins and smiles were revived to sparkle ever brightly. I note with ironic hindsight that Twist and Shout was recorded in mono, how prophetic!
The Monkey was not the most challenging dance. In my mind it doesn't look much like a monkey and more like someone climbing a ladder quickly, but it's apparently based on a monkey picking bananas. Perhaps the monkey is using a ladder to pick the bananas! It doesn't have the gyratingly sexual hip movements of the Twist or Watusi so nothing to tut about disapprovingly and yet....
Along with the other fad dances of the era, The Monkey represented expression through what were considered animalistic and therefore transgressive of social norms. To many it was not proper or decent behaviour.
It expressed the newly emergent identity of teenagers and their pop culture who rejected the dances of their elders and betters.
It revealed a connection between mankind and the apes, at a time when many struggled to accept Darwin's evolution. To dance animalistically with loose, free movements, was to lose control, to let go, and as anyone who could wag a finger knew: It would inevitably lead to sex! More importantly, sex with people the family didn't approve of. Such transgression!
The Monkey also had racial connotations. In the racist mindset there was a connection between race and animalistic movements: The fluid, expressive movements of those of African heritage were deemed primitive, less evolved and therefore inferior when compared to the controlled, refined partner dances of white European heritage. It's absolute nonsence, but it shows that anything can be distorted to suit a purpose.
Then comes a deeper layer...
Whether race or socioeconomic status, old power rituals have always played out where the establishment protected their entitled children from the social climbing under classes through segregating, regulating and suppressing dance. Fortunately their actions were almost always undermined by the very children they sought to protect.
Whether race or socioeconomic status, old power rituals have always played out where the establishment protected their entitled children from the social climbing under classes through segregating, regulating and suppressing dance. Fortunately their actions were almost always undermined by the very children they sought to protect.
Dance has always weaved its path between the establishment and the peasantry. As it does so it fuels the transgression which eventually wins out!
In the 19th century, admission to Scottish Country Dancing events in Edinburgh's Assembly Rooms was strictly off limits to all but the well-to-do.
Chaperones scrutanised the Highland Fling in order to prevent a highland fling!
Centuries earlier in the 1500s Queen Elizabeth I powdered her face with white lead in a fashion that separated the elite from the sun tanned agricultural workers. Her court danced the Volta and the Galliard, while out in the shires we mollied (drag), guised (disguised with a mask) and blackfaced for Morris dance, where often the Lord of Misrule, a king for a day, parodied the establishment's power.
Transgression wins, only to then become the next generation's establishment, to be transgressed once again.
Latin dances have evolved in this space between establishment and peasantry; highbrow and lowbrow; city and country, old and new, transgression and conformity.
Never more so than in Cuba. Around the late 1800s and into the early 20th century, Havana’s salons were filled with the violins and flutes of charanga bands playing to the great and the good. Note the European instrumentation. Away from the establishment, the percussive conjunto bands of the underprivileged beat out the heritage rhythms of Africa. On high days and holidays transgression ensued as the young and wealthy slummed it wirh the hoi paloy. Music follows the crowd and band leaders began to offer charanga's respectable melody fused with the exciting conjunto percussion. What emerged were new genres of Danzon, the precursor to Son, Mambo and eventually Salsa.
Maybe these dances are now the establishment, the salsa generation of the nineties are now the parents and grandparents, and it's their turn to be undermined by transgressive Reggaeton and Bachata Sensual?
Our ongoing connection with apes and dance:
Disney's 1967 cartoon adaptation of the Jungle Book had an ape singing ‘Ooh Hoo Hoo, I wanna be like You Hoo Hoo’, a ditty expressing an apes desire to be human. If only he'd sang: Please stop chopping down our habitat and selling our body parts for Chinese medicine, there might have been a more impact other than record sales, although I accept the lyrics aren't as catchy.
By the mid 1970’s the Goodies released The Funky Gibbon and I remember singing: ‘Do Do Do the Funky Gibbon’ accompanied by appropriate gibbon like dance movements. (Yes I have the record). Not a great example of transgression, but it's nice to be able to reference some 1970s pop artists who didn't transgress in a different way!
To bring things up to date, while neatly avoiding delving into Lion King or Madagascar as it's too soon to unpick the childhoods of Millennials :) I'm sure somewhere an AI produced pop star is singing and dancing some form of monkey dance as we speak, and who am I to judge?
Our ongoing connection with apes and dance:
Disney's 1967 cartoon adaptation of the Jungle Book had an ape singing ‘Ooh Hoo Hoo, I wanna be like You Hoo Hoo’, a ditty expressing an apes desire to be human. If only he'd sang: Please stop chopping down our habitat and selling our body parts for Chinese medicine, there might have been a more impact other than record sales, although I accept the lyrics aren't as catchy.
By the mid 1970’s the Goodies released The Funky Gibbon and I remember singing: ‘Do Do Do the Funky Gibbon’ accompanied by appropriate gibbon like dance movements. (Yes I have the record). Not a great example of transgression, but it's nice to be able to reference some 1970s pop artists who didn't transgress in a different way!
To bring things up to date, while neatly avoiding delving into Lion King or Madagascar as it's too soon to unpick the childhoods of Millennials :) I'm sure somewhere an AI produced pop star is singing and dancing some form of monkey dance as we speak, and who am I to judge?
The Science Bit:
So do monkeys actually dance or are we just anthropomorphising them?
Well it seems they do do do! (keep up!)
In a recent study co-led by the University of St Andrews published in Current Biology concluded that chimpanzees rhythmically drum using sticks on the buttress roots of trees. The key word here is rhythmically, meaning there is a recognisable pattern that is deliberately repeated. Not only are these rhythms recognisable, but they were specific to the various groups of Chimps.
The great pleasure of not being a scientist means I can speculate on the possibilities that this study might mean without any damage to my academic reputation as I simply don't have one :)
If different groups of chimps have their own drumming patterns, it may suggest that this forms part of their group identity. It may be very useful to the chimps as it projects their territory through setting a boundary of sound, warning off other groups without any need for physical conflict which could result in injury or death.
The low frequency sounds produced in drumming travel well in a forest and have the psychological effect of inspiring confidence and power in the group that drums, and anxiety in those that approach. ‘We are here, we are mighty and we will beat you in any conflict’. Alternatively they might be saying ‘Here’s a catchy little number for all you groovy chimps out there?’
We may not need drumming to mark our territory, but someone needs to tell those guys who pull up at the traffic lights with more bass power than a space X launch. Bass speakers are often bolted to the dancefloor to serve the same confidence boosting purpose as the chimp's tree roots. Rythmn remain part of our identity, our tribe, our culture.
There is another possibility and I suggest it as an example of a human tendency to assume that many cultural assets are automatically ancient. If a cave painting is discovered our assumption is that it was painted thousands of years ago and not last week. If we see Morris dancing on a village green, we assume that the dance has been passed down from generation to generation and not created last year.
All we know is that chimps drum, we don't know when they started drumming. They could have learnt from us humans? But then again gorillas probably didn't learn to drum their fists on their chests from watching Tarzan movies.... or did they? (The first Tarzan movie was made in 1918 and showed Tarzan beating his chest, but it was a silent movie! The yodelling came later)
If apes have an ancient connection to rhythm, why didn't they express it before humans recently showed them? We split off the evolutionary line of chimps around 7-8 million years ago and I find it unlikely that the rhythm talent just sat there, unused for millions of years until humans came along and went around the world teaching apes about rhythm.
Evidence that other apes drum or move rhythmically would suggest an ancient connection between all apes including humans. I remember an article several years ago suggesting orangutans rocked backwards and forwards rhythmically when it was about to rain, so perhaps now we have orangutans, chimps and humans in the ancient rhythm club.
I'm convinced we apes, we happy apes, we band of cousins, have been feeling the beat since before humans became humans. Perhaps it's our perception that humans are so different, so unique and so superior and so non rhythmic, that needs challenging.
Chimps drumming means they are using deliberate movements to create rhythm. Those movements would be remembered as a mental association between movement and action. What we used to call muscle memory. I suggest the mental association of movement, action and sound means chimps of the same group who hear drumming, would recognise and interact with those rhythms through movement. Deliberate movement interacting with rhythm, sounds a lot like dancing!
Evidence that other apes drum or move rhythmically would suggest an ancient connection between all apes including humans. I remember an article several years ago suggesting orangutans rocked backwards and forwards rhythmically when it was about to rain, so perhaps now we have orangutans, chimps and humans in the ancient rhythm club.
I'm convinced we apes, we happy apes, we band of cousins, have been feeling the beat since before humans became humans. Perhaps it's our perception that humans are so different, so unique and so superior and so non rhythmic, that needs challenging.
Chimps drumming means they are using deliberate movements to create rhythm. Those movements would be remembered as a mental association between movement and action. What we used to call muscle memory. I suggest the mental association of movement, action and sound means chimps of the same group who hear drumming, would recognise and interact with those rhythms through movement. Deliberate movement interacting with rhythm, sounds a lot like dancing!
To express ourselves freely, we
need to feel safe, we need to belong and we need confidence. We do that
through finding our tribe, our collective identity. So when chimpanzees
drum and say: ‘We are here, we are powerful and we are confident’, they
are creating a safe space in which their group can relax, play and enjoy
life. Sprinkle in a little rhythmic association and it's sounding like a
recipe for dance.
useful links:
For me, chimps drumming suggests that chimps dance, and it follows that because of our shared heritage, dancing is truly an ancient part of our culture. There are many ancient references to dance and monkeys including from Aztec Mythology: Ozomatli is the Aztec monkey god associated with dance, music, and the harvest, who represents the rhythm of the universe and the celebration of life.
Dance is an expressive space whwere we can be free, engaged and playful.
So, if you can’t beat them, join ‘em and dance!
End
End
useful links:
- Monkey dance wiki https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_(dance)
- Monkey dance how to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzTwx6bJeBU
- Funky Gibbon: https://youtu.be/pXq8rELhUkw?si=GIwydh8KOPFyg56x
- Chimp study article:
https://news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/chimpanzee-drumming-shares-the-building-blocks-of-human-musicality/#:~:text=best%20possible%20experience-,Chimpanzee%20drumming%20shares%20the%20building%20blocks%20of%20human%20musicality,long%20before%20we%20were%20human.%E2%80%9D - Tarzan 1918: https://youtu.be/vpLYBVleE2A?si=qfgaZK3nylTGfUD0
- Jungle Book: https://youtu.be/c8eISEw6Wug
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