Tag Archives: dancing

The Message Behind the Music-June 28

Chubby Checker – The Twist (Official Music Video)

Inspiration Behind the Twist:

The Twist came from a real-life dance craze that had been circulating in African American communities since the early 20th century. The motions of the twist first appeared in dance moves known as the Mess Around and Ballin’ the Jack. However, when Dick Clark, host of American Bandstandrecognized the potential crossover of the Twist, Chubby Checker, formally Ernest Evans, took this song and dance to new heights.

Biblical Application:

You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, 12 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever, Psalm 30:11-12.

Exegesis of the Twist:

Come on, baby
Let’s do the twist
Come on, baby
Let’s do the twist
Take me by my little hand
And go like this

An invitation to dance. Chubby is eager to demonstrate and lead the way.

E-yah, twist
Baby, baby, twist
Ooh yeah, just like this
Come on, little miss
And do the twist

Chubby is explaining and showing how to twist.

My daddy is sleepin’
And mama ain’t around
Yeah, daddy’s just sleepin’
And mama ain’t around
We’re gonna a-twist, a-twist, a-twistin’
‘Til we tear the house down

He is waiting for his parents to leave, be asleep before he can bust out the twist.

Come on and twist
Yeah, baby, twist
Ooh yeah, just like this
Come on, little miss
And do the twist
E-yah

Demonstrating and explaining how to do the Twist only increased its popularity.

Yeah, you should see my little sis
You should see my, my little sis
She really knows how to rock
She knows how to twist

Chubby likely taught her sister the twist when his dad was sleeping.

Come on and twist
Yeah, baby, twist
Ooh yeah, just like this
Come on, little miss
And do the twist

The chorus helps break down this dance.

Yeah
That’s all right
Yeah, twist all night
Twist
(‘Round and ’round and ’round)

A call to participate.

Final Thoughts:

Certain songs are designed to dance to, with versions of the Twist already in existence. Chubby Checker creates a song to celebrate the Twist which became a cultural movement. When song introduces a dance move, it increases its likelihood of remaining relevant. Nearly 70 years after the Twist was released, it still remains a popular dance move.

by Jay Mankus

The Message Behind the Music-June 26

David Bowie – Let’s Dance (Official Video) [HD]

Inspiration Behind Let’s Dance:

David Bowie made a deliberate shift toward pop accessibility.in 1983. This decision combined with commercial ambition and reinvention laid the foundation for Let’s Dance. After experimenting with rock, Bowe was ready for a change. This coincided with David’s departure from RCA Records, disappointed by his limited success in the United States. To complete his vision for Let’s Dance, Bowe brought in guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan and marketing magic of Niles Rodgers to transform this song into a dance-pop anthem.

Biblical Application:

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, 4praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, Psalm 150:3-6.

Exegesis of Let’s Dance:

Ah, ah, ah, ah
Yeah, dance all day
Whoo-hoo

Setting the tone with excitement.

Let’s dance
Put on your red shoes and dance the blues
Let’s dance
To the song they’re playing on the radio
Let’s sway
While colour lights up your face
Let’s sway
Sway through the crowd to an empty space

This kind of dancer is serious, needing the right shoes to dance the night away. This song on the radio is going to move you, light up your face and guide you as you sway on the dance floor.

If you say run
I’ll run with you, yes, I will
If you say hide
We’ll hide
Because my love for you
It would break my heart in two
If you should fall into my arms
Trembling like a flower

David refers to be speaking to a woman who he wants to be with, doing whatever she requests.

Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo
Let’s dance
Or feel your fate as they fall
Let’s dance
Or feel this night is all
Let’s sway
You could look into my eyes
Let’s sway
Under the moonlight, the serious moonlight

The chorus suggests that dancing can become so serious that you can fall into a trance-like state. David wants to person he is dancing with to look into his eyes, moving together as one.

If you say run
I’ll run with you, yes, I will
If you say hide
We’ll hide
Because my love for you
It would break my heart in two
If you should fall into my arms
Trembling like a flower

Dancing is much better with a partner. More fulfilling and intimate.

Let’s sway
Let’s dance
Let’s sway
Put on your red shoes and dance the blues
Let’s dance
Under the moonlight, the serious moonlight

An invitation to move with the beat of this music. Not just for a song or two, but for all night long.

Let’s dance
Let’s dance
Let’s dance, let’s dance, let’s dance, let’s dance, let’s dance

Dancing is the only thing on David’s mind, to become lost in the music.

Let’s dance
Let’s sway
Let’s dance
Let’s dance, let’s dance, let’s dance, let’s dance

This final chorus suggests that dancing is almost like a spiritual act or experience.

Final Thoughts:

I learned to dance in high school as a sophomore so that I could begin to be proficient enough to ask girls to a slow dance. However, the more I begin to lose myself in the music, especially fast paced songs, I found this much more fulfilling and satisfying. The more you dance, the more you’ll develop your own unique moves and style. Songs like Let’s Dance encouraged me to begin dancing, evolving into the dancers that I have become today.

by Jay Mankus

The Crossover Connection Week 42: Reliving the Inspirational Ballads of the 1980’s

Since I didn’t know how to dance as a freshman in high school, I tried to avoid embarrassing myself. However, I did attend all of the Concord High School dances with my friends from the Cross Country team. I decided to play it cool by sitting in the chairs along the dance floor waiting for the next slow dance. Stuttering didn’t make it easy to ask a girl to dance, but this is where I was introduced to the inspirational ballads of the 1980’s.

Let the word [spoken by] Christ (the Messiah) have its home [in your hearts and minds] and dwell in you in [all its] richness, as you teach and admonish and train one another in all insight and intelligence and wisdom [in spiritual things, and as you sing] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to God with [His] grace in your hearts, Colossians 3:16.

The Esterlyn Lamps album is one of the CD’s I listen to during my hour plus commute back and forth to work. As I was searching for the whole album, Esterlyn has a variety of soft rocks songs with inspirational lyrics. Back to the Start by Esterlyn is like an Eddie Money song just before the DJ slows it down with Careless Whisper, Hello and Is this Love?

While you can’t go back in time to relive these awkward moments in life, Esterlyn provides the sound of the 1980’s with great lyrics to uplift your soul. Listening to songs like Killing My Despair, Back to the Start, We All Need and Reveal Your Love will help you live out the apostle Paul’s prayer in Colossians 3:16. While I couldn’t find the whole album, I hope you enjoy Esterlyn this week.

by Jay Mankus

The Crossover Connection Week 17: Electronic Praise

During the Coronavirus pandemic, I was fortunate to remain working, regularly putting in 50-60 hours a week to keep up with the rigorous demands of the supply chain crisis in America. While I didn’t have the luxury of binge-watching television series, I began searching You Tube for new music every night. This is how I discovered Capital Kings thanks to a couple of mixes by MJ Deech. I wasn’t sure what Electronic Praise was, but I was open to the idea as this sound brought me back to my college days going to night clubs like Pulsations.

Is anyone among you afflicted (ill-treated, suffering evil)? He should pray. Is anyone glad at heart? He should sing praise [to God], James 5:13.

This new era of disco combines hip-hop and rap to form a contemporary version of music. Over the course of their 8-year ministry career, Capital Kings worked with artists like Hollyn and Reconcile to create hit songs. While my favorite song Paradigm isn’t on the attached You Tube, MJ Deech created a music video featuring platform jumping to tie into the lyrics. I’m not sure how long the fad of electronic disco and praise will stick around, but I hope you enjoy the music of Capital Kings this week.

by Jay Mankus

S.A.N.S. Episode 177: Dance

Today’s song reminds me of the classic film Footloose. Yet, Hoi Polloi’s music is alternative and more modern than the1980’s soundtrack Hoi Polloi was formed in New Zealand by vocalist Jenny Gullen and her husband. Jenny’s voice provides the feel of the Indigo Girls, but with creative lyrics and style that gives Hoi Polloi their distinct sound.

A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, Ecclesiastes 3:4.

Dancing was one of my favorite pastimes in high school and college. While I started out like Kenneth Wormald’s character in Footloose, I ended up developing into a smooth dancer. Songs like Dance remind me of my college days where I went clubbing with friends every summer in Cleveland, Ohio. When you play today’s you tube, I hope you’re inspired to put on your dancing shoes.

by Jay Mankus

S.A.N.S. Episode 106: Shout to the Lord

SKA is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s. I went through my own SKA phase back in the early 2000’s. This mixture of big band with American jazz and rhythm and blues appealed to me. Today’s featured song comes from Insyderz which is the first Christian SKA band I was introduced to. The featured song Shout to the Lord was my favorite when I attended Community Services at Willow Creek.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name! – Psalm 100:4

The Insyderz version is unlike any that I’ve heard, but it brings back fond memories of worshiping the Lord on Wednesday nights with thousands of people in Chicago. The Book of Psalm is filled with commands to sing and shout to the Lord. When you’re moved by the Holy Spirit, worshiping God can be as exhilarating as dancing. May today’s song inspire you to lift up your voice as you sing to God.

by Jay Mankus

Time of Your Life

The concept of “Time of Your Life” began with a 1939 play written by William Saroyan. In more recent years, movies like Dirty Dancing have brought songs with this concept in the title. I’ve Had the Time of My Life by Jennifer Warnes uses dancing as a means to have fun. Depending upon your hobbies and personality, the goal of any day is to have the time of your life.

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten ([d]unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him, John 3:16-17.

When I look back on the past half-century, one year sticks out, 1993. I left a youth director position in Delaware to attend a youth ministry trade school in Minnesota. For 7 straight weeks, I was having the time of my life, living with other people my age who wanted to minister to young people. Not only was I transformed by the teaching I received, I also experienced a revival while living in Columbus, Indiana.

I am the Door; anyone who enters in through Me will be saved (will live). He will come in and he will go out [freely], and will find pasture. 10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it [b]overflows), John 10:9-10.

When I was having the time of my life, I was also working 90 hours a week. My only day off began with a Bible Study at McDonald’s with students, followed by lunch in Cincinnati with my good friend Phil, and ended with an adult Bible Study back at church. When you’re having the time of your life, make sure you don’t burn yourself out like I did in 1994. Balance is crucial for developing stability and longevity. If I only knew this back then, I’d still be having the time on my life. For now, I’m trying to recapture what was lost.

by Jay Mankus

S.A.N.S. Episode 53: Purify

During my first summer as a full-time youth director in Indiana, my church hosted 30 students from the Netherlands. One of my responsibilities was to give these teens a tour of downtown Columbus when their group first arrived. While playing tour guide for a day; I met a teenager who was desperately missing his European Techo Music. Today’s feature song comes from the group 65dBA who I discovered in a Christian bookstore on my quest to share Jesus with these Netherlanders.

And everyone who has this hope [resting] on Him cleanses (purifies) himself just as He is pure (chaste, undefiled, guiltless), 1 John 3:3.

One of my favorite pastimes in high school was going dancing. I first learned to dance at a Concord High School Homecoming with my cross-country teammates. Once I developed as a dancer, I went to a local disco night club called Pulsations. When I first listened to today’s song Purify by 65dBA, I felt like I was at a college nightclub. While today’s song may not be for everyone, if you appreciate modern dance, disco or techno music, this song is for you.

by Jay Mankus

Exercise Every Kind of Endurance and Patience

The origin of organized exercise can be traced back to Johann Bernard Basedow. Building upon Rousseau’s ideas of the “Natural Human,” Basedow opened the Philanthropinum in Germany in 1774. This center for physical exercise began by offering wrestling, running, riding, fencing, vaulting, and dancing. While writing a first century teenage pastor, the apostle Paul acknowledged the benefits of physical training. Yet, Paul felt that spiritual training provides a greater value for life.

For physical training is of some value (useful for a little), but godliness (spiritual training) is useful and of value in everything and in every way, for it holds promise for the present life and also for the life which is to come. This saying is reliable and worthy of complete acceptance by everybody, 1 Timothy 4:8-9.

While runners warm up with stretching, Christians lean on prayer to prepare their hearts and minds for a new day. Just as muscles need to be loosened up prior to jogging, spiritual exercises requires tapping into the Holy Spirit. In a letter to the Church at Galatia, Paul lists a series of spiritual fruits to shoot for, Galatians 5:22-23. Perhaps, the passage below is a direct reference to the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Rather than develop an “Eye of the Tiger” mentality, Paul urges readers to hang in there with endurance and patience.

[We pray] that you may be invigorated and strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory, [to exercise] every kind of endurance and patience (perseverance and forbearance) with joy, Colossians 1:11.

From a human point of view, discipline and hard work will only take you so far. You may be able to beat yourself into submission like Paul’s analogy in 1 Corinthians 9:26-27. However, over the long haul, individuals need a higher power to invigorate and strengthen their soul. This is the type of spiritual exercise that Paul is talking about. If you’re feeling tired and weary, on the verge of giving up, spiritual exercise provides a spark to persevere. An Old Testament prophet uses the analogy of being lifted up by God so that endurance prevails. Isaiah 40:30-31.

by Jay Mankus

Losing Sight of God’s Glory

Attention, concentration and emphasis are words associated with focus.  These synonyms highlight the priority for those individuals who hone in on what’s important in life.  Depending upon your age, hobbies and interests, time will be allocated and invested in specific areas.  However, discipline, resolve and zeal are necessary traits to make your goals a reality.  Nonetheless, human nature has a subtle way of distracting good intentions.  The end result often leads to losing sight of God’s glory.

And David was dancing before the Lord with great enthusiasm, and David was wearing a linen ephod [a priest’s upper garment], 2 Samuel 6:14.

Prior to achieving fame by defeating the giant Philistine Goliath in battle, David was a skilled musician and shepherd.  The Old Testament does not reveal whether or not David combined these two abilities.  However, to stay sharp, I can see David practicing his harp at night, using a camp fire as a source for light.  As a former saxophone player, there is an adrenaline rush from playing moving songs.  Perhaps, this might explain the inspiration behind dancing, moving your body to the beat of music.  Beside performing for King Saul, David was also known to dance with enthusiasm, at one point dancing naked before the ark of the covenant.  Yet, five chapters later, seeing a beautiful woman bathing caused David to lose sight of God’s glory.

Let everything that has breath and every breath of life praise the LordPraise the Lord! (Hallelujah!) – Psalm 150:6

Romans 3:9-12 addresses mankind’s inability to avoid sin.  At some point, everyone screws up, falling prey to temporary pleasures.  As great as David’s act of adultery and murder detailed in 2 Samuel 11 may be, there is a way to regain your focus back toward glorifying God.  If you pray for a new heart, seeking to become a man or woman after God’s own heart, your spiritual vision will be renewed.  I have wasted years on earth trying to do what I want, to make a name for myself.  This selfish venture has blinded me from my real purpose for existing, Psalm 150:6.  Instead of waking up with the attitude what will God do for me today, there is a better alternative.  Start each day with a verse, a song and prayer to praise the Lord.  This is why you and I were born.  Therefore, don’t let the sun go down before practicing praise and worship of the great I Am.

by Jay Mankus