Hustle

Remember the ’70’s? John Travolta in the white polyester suit in Saturday Night Fever? Well, that was the Hustle, but just like a lot of other things have changed in the last 20 years, the Hustle has changed a lot, too.

The Hustle was born in New York’s Latin community. Young Latinos were born in a culture where dancing together was the norm, but they wanted to dance to more contemporary music than the Mambo of their parents. Slowly the Latin Hustle was developed and emerged as a club style.

The mainstream young people caught on to the music, and the dance style, and Hustle quickly became hugely popular, all over America and Europe, fueled in part by the movie. As hustle developed, many different styles emerged.

In the late ’70’s, with the emergence of punk rock and the anti-disco movement, the hustle faded in popular culture — but it never died! The hustle fanatics of the ’70’s never gave up on the dance, and it retained a cult popularity at underground clubs through the ’80’s. During this time, hustle kept developing and changing, and the hustle that is danced today bears little resemblance to the hustle of the ’70’s.

Hustle is danced to the contemporary pop dance music of the last 20 years. It is a fast, smooth dance, with the lady spinning almost constantly, while her partner draws her close and sends her away. It is a challenging dance, with a rhythmic pattern which plays with the timing of the music, rather that following it exactly.

Hustle is considered an Authentic Style dance, and DanceSport is one of the places where Hustle stays alive and keeps growing. Many of the original Hustle dancers of the New York hustle scene continue to come to our Monday night Hustle party, where some of the best dancing in NY is on display, especially late in the evening.