Monday, June 13, 2016

The Trinidad Serenaders w/ Mike Quashie

Artist: The Trinidad Serenaders
LP: Limbo: The Latest Party Dance Craze
Song: "Old Lady Walk a Mile and a Half" 
[ listen ]

If you've never thrown a limbo party of your own, I suggest you give it a try. You can just use a household mop or a broom. Limbo instructions are included below, along with notes and a demonstration by Mike Quashie, the original King of the Limbo from the 1950s, who holds the world's record for shuffling under the limbo bar when it's held just 7" off the ground. Mike's only real competition during his reign as Limbo King was former Topeka cheerleader Betsy Dalrymple (featured on the cover of this 1962 LP) while she was vacationing in Trinidad with her family in 1959. Miraculously, Betsy was able to scoot beneath the limbo bar at just 8" off the ground, despite having lost her right leg in the Kansas City carousel catastrophe of 1957. During her three-week stay in the Caribbean, Betsy's one-legged limbo routine dazzled fellow tourists and Trinidadians alike, as you might well imagine. 

There's a heartwarming New York Times City Room blog entry about Mike "King of Limbo" Quashie here, in which Mike and one of the dancers he worked with in his heyday reminisce together after being reunited in a Bronx nursing care facility. Of course now Mike's knees and back are totally shot, poor guy.

[ Mike Quashie — King of the Limbo ]

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