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Weekend Magazine: The Stomp, a 1960s dance craze

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Old photo shows people dancing The Stomp on dancefloor
Weekend Magazine: The Stomp, a 1960s dance craze

SUBJECTS:  History

YEARS:  9–10


Imagine a dance so simple it could be learnt in minutes and so popular it became a craze.

This clip from a Weekend Magazine program screened in 1963 looks at such a dance. It was called the Stomp and it was pounded out in surf clubs and council halls around Australia's coast.

Watch and listen as teenagers express their enthusiasm for the Stomp.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Have you heard of the 'surf sound' and a dance called the Stomp? The popularity of surfboard riding gave rise to a new youth subculture in the early 1960s. It soon had its own music, movies, magazines and a new style of dance called the Stomp, which became an expression of the teenage 'surfie' lifestyle.
  2. 2.What reasons do the interviewed teenagers give for enjoying the Stomp? Why is Alderman Moran, who speaks on behalf of a local council, concerned about safety in the halls used for the Stomp? What does that tell you about this dance compared with other dances? How would you describe the Stomp?
  3. 3.The arrival of rock 'n' roll in the late 1950s was accompanied by a wave of youth rebellion, and there was talk in Australia of a generation gap between teenagers and their parents. Surfie culture and the Stomp followed in the early 1960s. They were seen as further expressions of such a gap. Select six questions that you would ask the people in this clip to investigate this issue.
  4. 4.When speaking of the Stomp, one of the young women interviewed in the clip says, 'the music's better than the Twist music'. Use the internet and other resources to find out what kind of dance the Twist was, when and why it was popular and where it came from.


Date of broadcast: 1 Dec 1963


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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