The Hustle

This popular 1970’s-era dance is enjoying resurgence in many areas of the country, including right here in Columbia!  Although it remained popular in a few major metropolitan areas on both the east and west coasts, Hustle became increasingly rare in most other parts of the country during the 80s and 90s.   Now, thanks to the Hustle clubs and enthusiasts in many cities that have been keeping this dance alive, it is spreading even to the heartland of the country and to other countries as well.

Until recently, Hustle was almost never seen at public dances in this area, but now, thanks to local studios and teachers, and the efforts of USABDA, it is not unusual to be able to enjoy several Hustles in a single evening of general dancing.  Far from being a boring or simple dance to master, Hustle has enough patterns, moves, and techniques to keep even an advanced dancer enthused for a long time.

There are many names given to the dance that we currently call “Hustle” … 3-count, syncopated, ballroom, nightclub, New York, disco, and East Coast, to name a few.  Most historians agree that Hustle came into being in New York in the mid-1970’s, and many dance teachers have vivid stories about the New York dance scene during this colorful and exciting era.

1993 World Hustle Champion Marie Torres said that, during the disco dance craze of the late 70’s, there was a new disco fad dance introduced every week.  Several of these dances were danced with 4 steps to 4 beats of music and had 4-count patterns.  But when disco music slowed down, the dancers played with dancing the 4 steps in 3 beats of music. By the early 80s, the 3-count version stuck and became what we now call Hustle. The early versions were counted "&1-2-3", and this count is still dominant and preferred.  Other counting methods, such “1-2-&3” are recent aberrations, even though some of the “how-to” Hustle dance tape instructors use these counting methods.

However, another version of the origins of Hustle had the dance evolving from a New York fad dance, too, but this fad dance was an early form of West Coast Swing called "Latin Hustle".  This dance had as its basic: "tap, step, coaster step, walk, walk", danced to a count of 1-2-3&4-5-6.  One version of this dance had all the fancy turns and arm work on the last two walks. So the dancers who got bored with the tap-step at the beginning just removed the first two weight changes.  The first weight change was the tap-step; and the other weight change removed was the first step of the coaster. Since a coaster is "back-together-forward", when the first step is removed, what's left is "together-forward". So this streamlined new dance was "together-forward-walk-walk" danced to &4-5-6, (or the equivalent &1-2-3).   This dance was un-slotted (i.e., a rotating dance), but further refinements over the years have re-introduced the slotted patterns.  As a result, Hustle has both slotted and un-slotted patterns, which are intermixed.

In the late 70’s, a lot of Hustle dancers learned moves from the TV show “Dance Fever”, especially from champion Hustle dancer Eddie Vega.

Eddie was only 17 when he won the Dance Fever Grand Championship. In 1982, Eddie was only 19, when he was a finalist in USBC (U.S. Ballroom Championship), partnering with Nellie Cotto. Eddie was again a finalist in 1983 USBC, partnering with Lourdes Jones.

Eddie’s longtime friend Kenny Gonzales claimed that he and Eddie, along with Maria Torres, were the ones who started the hustle dance craze in Brooklyn in the 70’s.  If this is true, their dancing was probably influenced by Mambo and Salsa; the foundation step of the Hustle, the cross-body lead, is the basic step of both these Latin dances, without the additional footwork.

  Where to Learn

Both local dance studios have good Hustle instructors, and even have group lessons in Hustle from time to time.  USABDA dances also feature Hustle instruction periodically, and the USABDA video lending library has several Hustle tapes available to members.

You can even watch some video clips of Hustle patterns right on the internet.  Two good sites are www.hustleusa.com and www.discostepbystep.com, but you can find dozens more if you search on “Hustle”.  The Hustle USA site even lists all the places to dance Hustle in the United States (although most of the dance spots are in California, New York, and Philadelphia).  But if you’re traveling in these areas and want to see some spectacular Hustle being performed, try to make it to one of these Hustle clubs.  You won’t be disappointed.