Harlem shake

Harlem shake may refer to:

See also

Harlem

Coordinates: 40°48′32.52″N 73°56′54.14″W / 40.8090333°N 73.9483722°W / 40.8090333; -73.9483722

Harlem is a large neighborhood in the northern section of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Since the 1920s, Harlem has been known as a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Harlem's history has been defined by a series of economic boom-and-bust cycles, with significant population shifts accompanying each cycle.

African-American residents began to arrive en masse in 1905, with numbers fed by the Great Migration. In the 1920s and 1930s, Central and West Harlem were the focus of the "Harlem Renaissance", an outpouring of artistic work without precedent in the American black community. However, with job losses in the time of the Great Depression and the deindustrialization of New York City after World War II, rates of crime and poverty increased significantly. Harlem's black population peaked in the 1950s. In 2008, the United States Census found that for the first time since the 1930s, less than half of residents were black, and black residents only counted for 40% of the population.

Harlem shake (dance)

The Harlem shake, originally called the Albee, is a dance introduced in 1981 by a Harlem resident named "Al B". The dance was initially referred to as "albee" after his name, but later became known as the Harlem shake as its prominence grew beyond the neighborhood. The dance became mainstream in 2001 when G. Dep featured the Harlem shake in his music video "Let's Get It".

History

According to ABC News, while the dance originated during the 1980s in Harlem, New York, it is based on an Ethiopian dance called Eskista. Since its beginnings it has spread to other urban areas and became popular in music videos. The self-purported inventor of the dance was "Al B", a Harlem resident. Because of its founder, the dance was originally called the "Albee" in Rucker and Harlem, but then later became known as the Harlem shake.

Al B is quoted saying that the dance is "a drunken shake that will make you die if you ever attempt it, and you could easily go to jail anyway. It's a dirt bag troll that is really hardcore and will make you have seizures but it's fantastic. Everybody appreciates it." He said it comes from the ancient Egyptians and describes it as what the mummies used to do. Because they were all wrapped up, they couldn’t really move, all they could do was shake. Al B states that he has been doing the Harlem shake since 1981. The dance first caught on at the Entertainer's Basketball Classic or EBC and spread from there to other areas.

Shake

Shake may refer to:

Music

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New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern United States and is the United States' 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border in the Atlantic Ocean with Rhode Island, east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the north and Ontario to the west and north. The state of New York, with an estimated 19.8 million residents in 2015, is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from New York City, the state's most populous city and its economic hub.

With an estimated population of nearly 8.5 million in 2014, New York City is the most populous city in the United States and the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. The New York City Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City is a global city, exerting a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment, its fast pace defining the term New York minute. The home of the United Nations Headquarters, New York City is an important center for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural and financial capital of the world, as well as the world's most economically powerful city. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State. Two-thirds of the state's population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% live on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th century Duke of York, future King James II of England. The next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany.