Twerking is part of a larger set of characteristic moves unique to the New Orleans style of hip-hop known as "bounce". Twerking emerged from the bounce music scene of New Orleans in As a tradition shaped by local aid and pleasure clubs , block parties and second lines , [ 9 ] the dance was central to "a historical situating of sissy bounceβbounce music as performed by artists from the New Orleans African-American community that [led to] a meteoric rise in popularity post-[ Hurricane Katrina after ].
A Oxford Dictionaries blog post states, "the most likely theory is that it is an alteration of work, because that word has a history of being used in similar ways, with dancers being encouraged to "work it". The Oxford English Dictionary defines an early 19th-century use of the word as a blend of " twist " or " twitch " and " jerk ", which was reported by the BBC in conjunction with the black cultural context.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines twerking as dancing "in a sexually provocative manner, using thrusting movements of the bottom and hips while in a low, squatting stance ". The Oxford English Dictionary 's definition of the term may fuel the stigma [ 24 ] around twerking as a sexual and provocative dance. Booty dances have threatened the status quo by emphasizing group membership, the free movement of forceful Black bodies, and Afro-Diasporic counter-narratives.
The consensus is that such dances cognate to twerk β as indicated by their names and presence among Bantu-language -speaking slaves β are Central African in origin. The historically proximate precursors to twerk are as seldom cited as its analogues. The historical record indicates that dances like twerk date to the antebellum period in the American South. Enslaved people performed sinuous snake hip and fish tail dances on plantations during festivals and special gatherings, such as celebratory dinners.
In , the introduction of bounce music into the New Orleans music scene brought along the dance of twerking. Popular video-sharing platforms such as YouTube amplified interest since the advent of digital social media. In , the dance became a viral sensation beyond African-American popular culture , when pop singer Miley Cyrus used the dance in a video that was uploaded first on Facebook and then on YouTube in March which then later became a viral meme throughout social media outlets.
