The Newest Shuffle

Give me two up, two back, now hit the Big M. Erase it and back into the Madison.

This baffling exhortation is part of the caller's spiel for a new dance known as "the Madison." Deejays and pressagents argue endlessly about whether its name derives from the familiar avenue in the Negro section of Baltimore, a Detroit ballroom, or a bar in Cleveland, but whatever its origin, the Madison was showing signs last week of developing into the biggest dance craze since the Big Apple.

The Madison began to show up in the Negro sections of Midwestern cities about seven months ago, is spreading across the country with the enthusiastic backing of the recordmakers. Amy Records came out with a single a month ago. Columbia followed a fortnight later with The Madison Time, hired two teen-age demonstration teams, sent them out on tour to plug the new dance. Jocks who play the records on the air find themselves deluged with teenage mail. As far west as San Francisco, reported KEWB Program Director Bill Enis last week, the Madison is "picking up like gangbusters."

A simple two-step, the dance lends itself to any music with a steady -L- beat --and allows for innumerable variations: after the basic Madison step is completed, the caller can ask for the Big M (see cut), for a snatch of the Charleston, for some cha cha cha, or for the step known as "the Jackie Gleason" (a broad parody of Gleason's away-we-go shuffle). When a pattern is finished, he may call: "Erase it," i.e., repeat the pattern in reverse. The variations often have a sports flavor, as in "the Wilt Chamberlain Hook," in which the dancer suddenly goes stiff-legged and completes his shuffle with a Chamberlain-style hook shot. Baltimore devotees like "the Unitas," in which the dancer shuffles around with arm cocked as if to forward pass. Another local variation known as "Go to the Welfare" has the dancer advancing with hand extended, palm up.

Because the Madison requires little maneuvering space and is generally done in a line, it is peculiarly adapted to bars with jukebox accompaniment. But it is also decorous enough to be performed by teen-agers in the living room, and at least one school has adopted the dance as part of gym-class training.

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