Paleo Retiree writes:
As far as giddy, pure-pleasure culture-activities go, there hasn’t been much that’s given me more pleasure over the years than watching go-go dancers. They’re a lot more than just cute, skillful and energizing eye candy — although, god bless them, they’re all that too. They wiggle; they project feeling and personality; they wear costumes and hairdos with enthusiasm … They enhance shows, they keep energy levels up, and they contribute a lot of sex appeal.
Primarily go-go dancers serve decorative and background purposes, of course, but oftentimes (and in effect) they’re more than just decor — in fact, sometimes they’re more worth watching than the featured performers are. In a lot of ways go-go dancers represent the spirit of popular culture itself, and maybe even of the performing arts generally. They’re full of the love of showing off, pitching in, and contributing to fun experiences, and they work hard to deliver blasts of hope, silliness and joy.
I’ve enjoyed the work of a good number of go-go dancers live, but in recent years, thanks to the miracle of YouTube, I’ve also been able to revisit the go-go dancing from my youth and early youth, the real glory days of the form. One of my main responses has been to wonder: “Why on earth doesn’t someone make a documentary about go-go dancers, and about the go-go dancing era more generally? Where’s the priceless, moving, funny, gorgeous, nostalgic movie about them, something along the lines of ‘Standing in the Shadows of Motown,’ Paul Justman’s wonderful 2002 documentary about the musicians in Motown’s house band?”
In the case of go-go dancers: A lot of video footage exists, and many of the people who were participants in the scene are still around and in good shape. The materials are there. Plus: As far as I can tell, today’s world is nothing if not teeming with wannabe filmmakers in search of excuses to start shooting and editing. So: get cracking, filmmakers. It’s a great, not just a good, subject, and it’s ripe for the picking.
A little more discerning now than I was as a kid, as I’ve stared at my computer screen I’ve been able to distinguish one go-go dancing troupe from another. And over and over again, one go-go troupe in particular has stood out: the girls on the TV show Hollywood A Go Go. A little time with Google has revealed that they were known as the Gazzarri Dancers. With their fluidity and their sophisticated sex appeal, they make most of the other pop-music dance troupes of the era look clunky, square and earthbound — more like hard-working girls still earnestly shaking off the ‘40s than young women helping usher in the freedom of the late ‘60s and the experimentation of the ‘70s.
Here’s a number from Shindig …
Cute and fun as can be — no disrespect meant! Still, compare the girls and the dancing in it to this number from Hollywood A Go Go:
The Shindig number: bright and brassy, almost like an early ’60s version of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.” The HAGG number: all cashmere and daring, and reminiscent of the movies of Roger Vadim. Each and every one of the Gazzarri girls strikes me as tigerish — as too much woman, and in the best possible way.
I’m a little wary of rhapsodizing too much, let alone sounding like too much of an old fart. But for me the HAGG numbers aren’t just ‘way more sophisticated than almost anything else from the TV of the era, they’re also much more truly-deeply erotic than contempo pop numbers are. This despite the fact that they’re far less explicit (and, god knows, they’re far less aggressive and polished) than a lot of contemporary pop-music performances. On the one hand they’re as all-American as high school and Playboy magazine; on the other they have some of the assertive-yet-sultry allure of many of the European art movies of that era. In any case, I consider them little jewels of pop poetry.
One of my favorite hobbies on Facebook has been linking to a lot of the Hollywood A Go Go videos and introducing my Friends to the Gazzarri girls. Since many people — even many who have extensive pop-music knowledge banks — seem completely unaware of the various go-go troupes, I see sharing my knowledge and links as doing a major public service.
Snooping around one day on Facebook I was tickled to see that Deanna (De De) Mollner, the best-known of the Gazzarri Dancers, is a FB member. (De De is the knockout blonde behind the singer in the Hollywood A Go Go number above.) I sent De De a Friend request, she Friended me back — yay — and she’s been an online acquaintance ever since. A tall blonde dynamo, De De in the Hollywood A Go Go numbers embodies a bit of Tuesday Weld and a bit of Brigitte Bardot, and the Facebook-offered glimpses I’ve had of her suggest a life very well, indeed exuberantly, lived.
Recently I was ranting to The Question Lady about the above question — Why hasn’t a documentary about go-go dancing been made? She put up a hand and told me I should stop being an idiot and man up. “But I’m not a filmmaker,” I protested. “No, but you’re in touch with De De Mollner,” she said. “You’ve got a blog, and you’re a good interviewer.”
I took her point. So come back tomorrow to enjoy a treat. You’ll have the chance to meet a special person, and you’ll be able to learn a bit about a special time, the glory days of American go-go dancing.
Blowhard, Esq.
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Uncouth Reflections 
Compared to the Shindig girls, the Hollywood a Go Go girls move more in a way that destabilizes their balance — keeping their feet off the ground for longer overall, half-jumping about, spinning around, shaking or banging their head, and moving their extremities more and farther away from their core, like vigorous arm movements with their arms extended, or high kicks.
That seems to be the central thing that changes in popular dance styles over time — how much you’re willing to throw yourself off balance, get dizzy, and perhaps even go into a trance, or keep your weight closer to your core and stay in full self-control. The former comes off as more self-forgetting / group-immersing, while the latter comes off as more self-aware and manipulative of the audience.
The Go Go dancers were the first major change in direction after the mid-century trend toward self-controlled and manipulative women. Not just the femme fatale of movies from the ’40s and ’50s, but the women from the heyday of burlesque and striptease / girlie shows. The burlesque women kept their head, hands, and feet fairly still and close-in, focusing more on hip-swaying and booty-shaking — yep, just like today. And dropping it like it’s hot.
Didn’t matter that they were WASPs instead of black or Latin — they still had much thicker and curvier bodies in the mid-century, and the burlesque girl basic dance style is straight out of a hip-hop video. See below, from about 7:30 on. Classier than a hip-hop chick, but not very different in the basic set of moves. Where the free-wheeling Go Go dancers allow you the viewer to tune out consciously and cut loose, the burlesque / hip-hop dancers are so self-aware that it wakes you your self-consciousness too. Makes it nearly impossible to get into.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb8iy6vvpPc
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The Go Go dancers led to the disco dancers of the ’70s and ultimately to the “model in a rock video” of the ’80s. By the peak of the trend, they weren’t so wild and frenetic as in the beginning. During the ’60s, they needed to overshoot the energy level, to make a decisive break with mid-century sobriety. But after that break had been achieved, dancers could relax their former need for aggression, and go into a more fully hypnotized, trance-like, spirit possession kind of mindset and move-set. (Until the ’90s and 21st century returned us to the mid-century.)
I can’t think of a music video that encapsulates that peak perfectly, but below you can see the basic idea from “C’est la Vie” by Robbie Nevil. The ’80s dancer was even more spinny and head-toss-y, more lost-in-the-moment, more languorous and glamorous. A neo-flapper for the neo-Twenties.
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A documentary on the Go Go dancer, the disco dancer, and the neo-flappers would be a real trip to see, but realistically, it would probably have to wait awhile to find an enthusiastic group to make it, finance it, and watch it.
Because we’ve returned to a mid-century zeitgeist, all retro interest of the past 20 years has been toward the mid-century pin-up, striptease, burlesque, and femme fatale. You can find documentaries, books, web-pages, etc., devoted to the heyday of burlesque and striptease, not to mention all the girls who want to look edgy and retro by getting a Bettie Page haircut, accentuated by their “fast-talking and wisecracking dame” speech.
The zeitgeist goes in cycles, though, so just give it time. Look at the revival of interest and enthusiasm for the Jazz Age beginning in force around the mid-1970s and lasting through the ’80s. The psychedelic posters revived Art Nouveau, because the ’60s and early ’70s were like the 1900s / ’10s, making a break with a more subdued culture (the Gilded Age and the mid-century).
Widespread interest in Go Go dancers will probably have to wait, but there’s no reason it couldn’t catch on again, and even while we’re still alive to see it.
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When I moved to NYC in the 1970s, I saw clubs in northern New Jersey all advertising “go-go dancers”. It didn’t make sense to me until I was told that “go-go dancer” was the regional term for topless dancers at a bar.
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