Its International Dance Day!
Did you know these fun facts about everyone's favourite dance?
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Swiss accordion player Werner Thomas created the song and dance in the 1950's.
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The name of the original Swiss song was “Der Ententanz,” or “The Duck Dance.”
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Belgian music producer Louis Julien van Rijmenant heard the song being played in 1973. He collaborated with a band called Bobby Setter's Cash & Carry to publish the song as a single, called “Tchip, Tchip,”
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More than 140 versions of the song have been recorded, selling 40 million copies worldwide.
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The dance first came to the United States in 1981 during Oktoberfest celebrations in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A German band wanted to demonstrate the dance in costume for a local TV station, but a duck costume could not be located, so a chicken costume was used. Hence, chicken dance instead of duck dance.
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In 2004, Motley Creu singer Vince Neil served as Grand Marshall of the World’s Largest Chicken Dance in Cincinnati. VH1 called the appearance “the single least metal moment in history.”