It’s Madison time!
First of all we have to explain that this post is not about Monge Shoes team’s trip to the Madison Square Garden, though it wouldn’t be a bad plan at all, but we are referring to a dance from the 60’s that we have always loved.
Always the past decades seem to be better, and although we are people from our time and we love living in today, a lot of times we agree this statement. That is why we love 60’s, a time when people got ready from head to toe, women with their great hairstyle and clothes and men wearing perfect polished shoes and made-to-order suits.
First time we were aware that Madison existed was watching ‘Bande à Part‘ (Band of Outsiders), Jean-Luc Godard’s cult film from the sixties. This Nouvelle Vague director made this dance scene one of the most popular in film history.
We freaked out and could not stop thinking why people did not dance like this everywhere. Actually, some people would think that this could be today’s ‘Macarena‘ or ‘Gangman Style‘… but they were the 60’s and obviously everything was different on this decade.
This line dance was created in the USA, Columbia (Ohio), in the late 50’s. Due to its popularity in Baltimore it took the attention of ‘The Buddy Deane Show‘ producers and the rest is history.
The Madison Dance also arrived to the masses in Spain, thanks to Marisol, the musical and reviled icon, during these years of dictatorship. The film ‘Rumbo a Rio‘ shows her singing and dancing an interpretation of this dance.
After that, there have been more cinema winks like the one in ‘Pulp Fiction‘, where John Travolta and Uma Thurman danced a kind of Madison’s version. Tarantino is a wellknown Jean-Luc Godard’s fan, in fact his first production company was called Bande à Part. And the enjoyable ‘Hairspray‘, inspired by John Waters film from the 80,s that would become later in a popular Broadway musical.
So we earnestly beg you to learn these easy steps although we know that is difficult that the circumstances to dance it happens, but it is soooo cool!