Why Is Australia the Only Country That Does the Nutbush Dance?
Why Is Australia the Only Country That Does the Nutbush Dance?
DYOR Dave
For someone who’s as native to Australia as the sport of curling, Tina Turner has certainly left her mark on our culture.
She appeared alongside Jimmy Barnes singing ‘Simply The Best’ to promote the 1989 and 1990 NRL seasons, as well as performing at the 1993 grand final, but her biggest impact on our nation came completely unbeknownst to the singer herself.
In 1973, Turner released “Nutbush City Limits,” her last song with husband and collaborator Ike Turner, and despite it being the title track of the album, it failed to reach the heights of her other hits.
While most countries took little notice of the song, Aussies took to it like Dribblers to margaritas on a sunny Saturday arvo.
Remarkably, Australia is the only country in the world that performs the Nutbush dance to accompany the song, and unfortunately, no footage exists of the first time Tina witnessed Aussies bust out the jig at her concert, although it’s not hard to imagine her confusion.
Turner grew up in the town of Nutbush Tennessee, which is actually an unincorporated rural community and therefore doesn’t even have city limits, although the song details her experiences as a poor child growing up in the small town.
The earliest reports suggest that the dance moves were the brainchild of primary school teachers in the late 70s, although there are no concrete reports of how the dance originated.
By the 1980s the Nutbush had taken the nation by storm, performed by dribblers in discos, dances, weddings, barmitzvahs, and school classrooms around the country.
The Nutbush followed the trend of line dancing that was gaining popularity in the US, with easy-to-remember moves, individual dancers performing in a grid formation, as well as long intros which allow people time to take their positions on the dance floor.
Dances like the Madison, the electric slide, and the bus stop were already popular at the time of the Nutbush, and the release of Saturday Night Fever in 1977 pushed disco and dancing to the forefront of pop culture.
In 1990, Billy Ray Cyrus’ hit ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ featured cowboy-style line dancing which once again promoted line dancing, but was all but forgotten when ‘the Macarena’ took over the world in the late 90s.
As time passed, the Nutbush seemed to only grow in influence, becoming a staple of Aussie weddings and celebrations, as well as entering the Primary school curriculum in 2002 which ensured its longevity in our society.
Although the song is about a place on the other side of the world, the themes of hard-working small-town people reflected the sentiments of many rural Australians in the late 20th century, and with her connections to our nation’s culture, something about the dance feels uniquely Australian, or perhaps that’s just because it’s been ingrained into my head since year 2 PE lessons.
With easily memorable moves, and a catchy beat at a steady walking pace, the dance is perfect for all ages, and individuals are able to choose the amount of panaché they add to the moves.
Because of this, young children are encouraged to practice the dance to improve coordination, and for the oldies, it helps keep their brain and body sharp in a fun way.
In 2015 the Victorian town of Horsham set the record for the most number of people performing the Nutbush, with 254 dancers. The record has since been broken 3 more times, the most recent being 2,330 people at the Big Red Bash in the Simpson Desert.
Despite the popularity of the dance, Turner has never performed it, instead opting for a more choreographed and fluid movement for her live performances.
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