Twerking It Out: Controversies Across the Nation
Has the popular dance gone too far?
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Twerk, Twerk, Twerk! - Theta Xi, a University of Michigan fraternity, made headlines on Nov. 4 for a Facebook post announcing a “Hood Ratchet” party, featuring women in college gear “twerking” in a handstand position. The ad was slammed for racially charged rhetoric, which called for “basketball players, gangsters” and more to participate. BET.com takes a look at the evolution of the dance over the years. — Dominique Zonyéé(Photo: Facebook via WorldStarHipHop)
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Where Does Twerking Come From? - With influences across the globe, hip hop culture inadvertently adopted twerking from African dances such as the Bobarba Dance, or “big bottom” dance, and the once banned Mapouka dance from the Ivory Coast. The hip-shaking dance can be done to any beat-driven tune.(Photo: ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP/Getty Images)
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When Did It Become a “Household” Name? - The word “twerking” gained its claim to fame in 1993 when DJ Jubilee from New Orleans released his dance hit “Do the Jubilee All.” On the track, he ad-libbed the word “twerk” to the rhythm beat. Twerking resurfaced on the hip hop scene in 2000 with the Ying Yang Twins’ “Whistle While You Twurk.”(Photo: Miley Cyrus via Twitter)
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Gay New Orleans Rapper Twerks Off - Big Freedia, star of the Fuse TV show Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce, recently won a Guinness World Records title for most people twerking simultaneously with more than 250 people in New York's Herald Square. That was the first time anyone had tried to get twerking into the Guinness Book of World Records.(Photo: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images)
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Twerking Gone Bad - At the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, Miley Cyrus’ twerk-tastic grind on crooner Robin Thicke put twerking into the national consciousness. African-American women and men clapped back when several critics said the dance was associated with low-income African-American women. Even Big Freddia was “baffled” by what he said was Miley Cyrus’ “attempt to twerk.”(Photo: Andrew H. Walker/WireImage)
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