Go-Go Dancing making a Comeback!

If you've heard about strip-tease, you must have heard about Go-Go dancers. The term calls up images of semi-nude women gyrating to music on tables in a nightclub. It’s very appropriate because that is exactly what it is. But there is a difference between stripping and go-go dancing. Originally, the term was coined in the 1960’s to refer to the women (patrons) at nightclubs and discotheques that would climb onto the tables and dance the twist. They wore mini-skirts which of course gave every guy in the club a sight he wouldn't soon forget. The girls became so popular that some nightclub promoters decided to hire girls to dance every night. No stripping was involved but the guys didn't care. The girls hired were beautiful.

Night clubs sexy dancing

The term nightclub is simply another name for a discotheque or disco. While today there are still nightclubs with the fancy light shows and pulse pounding music, few of them still play disco music. Today the music is more likely to be electronic dance, or house music. Some play hip-hop, others R&B, while others play rock, pop and a variety of other types of dance music. The music is usually played by a DJ through digital recordings of the songs, but there are some nightclubs that have live bands. You can distinguish the entertainment of a generation by the name used for the clubs they went to. Your great-grandfather probably visited the local juke joint or honky tonk, your grandfather probably went to the discotheque, your father to the nightclub while you prefer the club or bar.

Meanings of Go-Go

Go-Go is a term that referred to a high energy person. In French, the term a gogo means ‘in abundance, galore”. It was 1964 when Carol Doda injected the ‘topless’ into go-go dancing at the Condor Club in San Francisco. She was the first stripper  to perform in the US topless. Variations of Go-Go dancing added girls in elevated cages, giving rise to the term, ‘cage dancer’. Although females make up the vast percentage of go-go dancers, there are male dancers in transsexual and gay bars. With the continued exposure of go-go dancers on television shows and in early 80’s Madonna music videos, the practice got a resurgence of interest and remains popular today.

Today, go-go dancers perform at clubs, at private parties, and at festivals. They tend to be more elaborate with their costuming using accessories to complete their ensemble. Some accessories include toy guns, glow sticks, and fiber optic outfits that light up while they dance.