Chicken (dance)
popular rhythm and blues dance
The chicken is a popular rhythm and blues dance that originated in the United States in the 1950s, in which the dancers flap their arms and kick back their feet in an imitation of a chicken. The dance features lateral body movements. It was used primarily as a change of pace step while doing the twist. The chicken dance gained popularity when Rufus Thomas wrote "Do the Funky Chicken", a hit record in 1970.
Legacy
In the 1960s the Chicken gave rise to The Frug, showcased in Bob Fosse's choreography.
It is featured in the 1980s original Blues Brothers musical comedy film directed by John Landis and starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.
It is mentioned in the 1997 Chicago Tribune column "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young" by Mary Schmich, and in 1999 was made into a well-known song by Baz Luhrmann titled "Wear Sunscreen".
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7722408. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970, 1997 and 1999.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chicken (dance)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.