What is "bunny hug"

Turkey-trot \Tur"key-trot`\, n. An eccentric ragtime dance, danced with the feet well apart and with a characteristic rise on the ball of the foot, followed by a drop upon the heel. The original form, owning to the positions assumed by the dancers, is offensively suggestive. Similar dances are the

bunny hug and

grizzly bear, so called in allusion to the movements and the positions assumed by the partners in dancing.

alt. 1 (context Canada chiefly Saskatchewan and Alberta idiomatic English) A sweatshirt with a hood. 2 (context idiomatic English) A style of early 20th-century dance, performed to ragtime music. n. 1 (context Canada chiefly Saskatchewan and Alberta idiomatic English) A sweatshirt with a hood. 2 (context idiomatic English) A style of early 20th-century dance, performed to ragtime music.

n. a syncopated ballroom dance formerly popular in the US

The bunny hug was a dancing style performed by young people, in the early 20th century. It is thought to have originated in San Francisco, California in the Barbary Coast dance halls along with the Texas Tommy, turkey trot, and grizzly bear.

The bunny hug was performed to the music of America's great ragtime composers. The bunny hug, like other "animal" dances, caused a lot of uproar in polite society.

Noble Sissle has been quoted as saying that W.C. Handy's song " The Memphis Blues" inspired Vernon Castle to create the dance when he heard James Reese Europe play the Memphis blues and Castle liked the rhythm. Apparently Castle later renamed the Bunny Hug the Fox-trot, hoping to convince the public that he invented the Foxtrot dance.

The Vitagraph comedy short Bunny Dips Into Society features scenes of comedian John Bunny performing the Bunny Hug; the film was also released under the title Bunny and the Bunny Hug.

In 1914, Germany introduced a dance entitled "the rabbit dance" which was said to be just like the American bunny hug.

The term "bunny hug" is also used in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan to refer to hooded sweatshirts or 'hoodies'. And in 2016 a website launched to promote and preserve this cultural symbol at: https://www.bunnyhugstore.com

For an excellent example of this dance, see Barbara Boylan and Bobby Burgess on The Lawrence Welk Show episode "Strike up the Band", recorded in 1964.