There are some songs that cheer me up and get me on my feet no matter how awful my day has been. Example: Rilo Kiley’s “The Frug.” If you’ve never heard it, click that link and listen to the whole song. I dare you to feel down after a good dance sesh to “The Frug.”

The lyrics are pretty simple. Lead singer Jenny Lewis says she can do all these things: “make mac and cheese, take her clothes off, hate your girl”… but she cannot fall in love. Cynical, maybe, but the song is so upbeat I can’t help but think Jenny isn’t too upset that she can’t fall in love. Anyway, in addition to shuffling off to Buffalo and back-bending, she also says she can do all these dance moves. In my never-ending effort to learn awesome dances that will make me popular at parties, I decided it was important to research the four dances Rilo Kiley talks about in the song.

Dance number one: the Frug. This started in the 1960s and evolved from the Twist. Apparently, swinging their arms was too hard for people to do, so they just dropped those bad boys out and called it “the Frug.”

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