King Tut – Dance Like the Famous Pharaoh

Looking for some new moves to impress your mates on the dance floor? Well take a look back at the past for a retro revival. It surprising how many of today’s hottest moves originate from something else. Take ‘tutting’ for example, today it is classed as a form of ‘popping’, but it originated several decades ago based upon the geometric body language portrayed by ancient Egyptians in hieroglyphics. The name comes from modern culture’s favourite pharaoh, the ever popular King Tut.

Tutting exploits the body’s ability to create geometric shapes and movements, usually in the form of right angles. It’s done with attention to the rhythm of music and is classified as a simple dance, which is quite easy to learn. There are plenty of YouTube videos giving how-to directionals if you’re keen on learning the moves. While tutting stay’s true to its nature of popping, the dance has since evolved and now includes much larger full body movements to minuscule little finger movements as well.

Tutting has featured big time in popular culture, from the Bangles’ ‘Walk like an Egyptian video’ to Michael Jackson’s very popular video for ‘Remember the Time’. You can also see it in Madonna’s well-known ‘Vogue’ video and even in modern pop choreography today. However one of the most popular and closely related renditions of tutting is Steve Martin’s comical sketch of ‘King Tut’. Made famous on Saturday Night Live, the comedian did a tribute to the famous King Tut and has since immortalised the dance.

Tutting is a simple dance form that anyone with basic rhythm is capable of picking up very quickly. So get ‘walking like an Egyptian’ and start practising your moves!