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Disco Hustle

(1970s - Present)

The Dance

There are two complementary parts to the Hustle: the footwork and the figures. While the sources usually describe each figure as it was danced with a specific footwork pattern, most of them can be adapted to the other footwork patterns as well. Therefore, on this page, we'll describe the footworks and figures separately, allowing you to mix and match them, just as the dancers did in the 1970s.

The Footwork

There were many different footwork patterns in disco hustle, including at least seven major families of hustle, each with countless minor variations. Below, we'll describe each of these major families, as well as some of the interesting minor variations, but to avoid making this page the length of War and Peace, we won't describe every single possibility. Instead, we'll simply make two notes upfront:

1. Most hustles involve walking steps, which allow you to move through the figures. The sources note that these walking steps can be in place, forward, back, or to the side, as needed. Therefore, where the descriptions below say "walk," this is where you're walking through the figure with steps in whatever direction will make it most comfortable.
2. Many hustles involve touches. While these touches are most often described as being with the toe in the specified place (usually to the side), some minor variations substitute them with: touches with the toe in place, behind (as in a rock step), or in front (perhaps crossed over), touches with the heel, or even kicks. Therefore, where the descriptions say "touch," you can use the standard option, or adapt it based on what makes the most sense in the moment (for comfort or style).

• Latin Hustle (The Hustle, Latin-Swing, New York Hustle, Six-Step Hustle):
  Touch left foot to side (1), step left closed (2), step back right (3), step left closed (and), walk (4), walk (5), walk (6) [DB74b, AP76, SR78, KL78, LW78, NB79, RD79, JM79, BS79]. Also sometimes described as: 1, 2-and-3, 4, 5, 6 [HC75, KL78]. Touch can also be behind (as in a rock step) [SR78].


• Street Hustle:
  Just the second half of the Latin Hustle: back left (and), walk (1), walk (2), walk (3) [RD79].


• American Hustle (The Hustle, Double Hustle, The Easy Hustle, Basic Hustle):
  Touch left to side (1), step left closed (2), touch right to side (3), walk (4), walk (5), walk (6) [AJ75, SR78, LW78, NB79, RD79, AK79, JM79, MP79]. Touch can also be behind (as in a rock step) [SR78, AK79], or with heel [DK75, AK79].


• Beginner's Hustle:
  Six counts of American Hustle followed by an extra touch closed (7) and hold (8) [DK75].


• Continental Hustle (The Glide, Six-Count Hustle):
  Step left to side (1), touch right closed (2), step right to side (3), touch left closed (4), walk (5), walk (6) [AP76, KL78, SR78, JC79, AK79]. Can also be done with a heel dig closed [DB74a], touch behind (as in a rock step) [DB74b] or kick (between partner's feet) in place of the touch closed [DB74a].


• New York Hustle:
  Repeat the first four steps of the Continental Hustle, with no walking [AP76, LV79].


• Eight Count Continental Hustle:
  Add two additional walking steps to the end of the Continental Hustle [DB74b].


• Simple Partner Hustle (Easy Couple Hustle, Tap Salsa):
  Touch left to side (1), walk three steps (2, 3, 4), tap right to side (5), walk three steps (6, 7, 8) [KL78, AK79, ER79]. Can also be dance phase-shifted, as follows: walk three steps (1, 2, 3), touch (4), walk three steps (5, 6, 7), touch (8) [DB74a, DB74b, SR78].


• Disco Swing (Lindy Hustle):
  Triple step to left (1-and-2), triple step to right (3-and-4), and rock step with left behind right (5, 6) [DB74b, LW78, RD79]. Triple steps can also be replaced by touch steps as in American Hustle [AK79].


• Triple Hustle:
  Step left to side (1), rock step with right behind left (2-and), step right to side (3), rock step with left behind right (4-and), walk (5), walk (6) [RD79].


• Boston Salsa (Newporter Salsa):
  Step left to side (1), rock step with right behind left (and-2), walk (3), walk (4), step right to side (5), rock step with left behind right (and-6), walk (7), walk (7) [AK79]. Can also be danced phase-shifted as follows: 1, 2, 3-and-4, 5, 6, 7-and-8 [AK79].


• Four Count Hustle: Walk (1), walk (2), rock step with left behind right (3, 4) [AK79].

The Figures

• Outside Turn (Arch Turn): With R-to-L hands, the Follow turns clockwise under the hands [JM79].
• Figure Eight Turn: With both hands, the Follow turns clockwise under left-to-right to be wrapped up by the Lead's right side, with her right arm in front of the Lead and her left arm behind her. Reverse the arms to unwind [JM79].
• Inside Turn (Loop Turn): With R-to-L hands, the Follow turns counterclockwise under the hands.
• Wrap Turn: With both hands, the Follow turns counterclockwise under left-to-right to be wrapped up by the Lead's right side, with both of her arms in front of her. Reverse the arms to unwind [JM79].
• Alternating Wrap Turns: Unwrap from Wrap at Lead's right and immediately wrap into Wrap at Lead's left [JM79].

Sources

• DB74a — Dick Blake. (1974). Disco Dances. Cleveland Heights, OH.
• DB74b — Dick Blake. (1974). The New Disco Touch Dancing. Cleveland Heights, OH.
• HC75 — Hartford Courant. (1975, November 11). "Torso-Twisting Hustle Lets Dancers Hold Each Other." Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT).
• AJ75 — Alan Jenkins. (1975, October 5). "Do It . . . Do the Hustle." The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, FL).
• DK75 — Dana Kleiman. (1975, August 14). "Do the Hustle." Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, HI).
• AP76 — Abe Peck (ed.). (1976). Dancing Madness. New York.
• KL78 — Karen Lustgarten. (1978). The Complete Guide to Disco Dancing. San Francisco.
• SR78 — Steve Ramacher. (1978). Let's Disco, A Complete Instructional System for Disco Dancing. Minneapolis.
• LW78 — Lester Wilson. (1978). Dance Dance Dance. Los Angeles.
• NB79 — Nancy P. Bruning. (1979). The Kids' Book Of Disco. New York.
• JC79 — Joetta Cherry, Gwynne Tomlan (1979). Disco Dancing. New York.
• RD79 — Randy Deats, Laurie Devine. (1979). Dancing Disco. New York.
• AK79 — Ann T. Kilbride, A. Algoso. (1979). The Complete Book on Disco and Ballroom Dancing. Los Alamitos, CA.
• JM79 — Judi McMahon. (1979). A Guide to Disco Dancing. New York.
• ER79 — Elizabeth Romain, Flick Colby. (1979). Let's Go Dancing. London.
• MP79 — Maxine Polley. (1979). Disco Basics. Englewood, NJ.
• BS79 — Brian Sherratt, Nalani M. Leong. (1979). Disco Chic, All the Styles, Steps, and Places to Go. New York.
• LV79 — Lani van Ryzin. (1979). Disco. New York.

© 2018 Nick Enge

For more dance descriptions, see our three books on dancing:
The Book of Mixers: 100 Easy-Teach Dances for Getting Acquainted (2022) by Richard Powers and Nick & Melissa Enge,
Cross-Step Waltz: A Dancer's Guide (2019) by Richard Powers and Nick & Melissa Enge, and
Waltzing: A Manual for Dancing and Living (2013) by Richard Powers and Nick Enge.

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