Twerk
Also known as: Twerking, Bounce Dance, Booty Popping
- Origin
- New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
- Era
- 1990–Present
- Rhythm
- 4/4 at bounce tempo, with the pelvic action doubling the beat and call-and-response chants cueing changes of level and direction
- Tempo
- 95-105 BPM
- Character
- Athletic, percussive and communal; celebratory and competitive rather than presentational, with stamina treated as a mark of skill.
History & Cultural Context
Twerk is a social dance of the New Orleans bounce scene, a local hip-hop subgenre that took hold in the city's housing developments at the start of the 1990s. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the modern dance sense of the word to 1993 and DJ Jubilee's "Do the Jubilee All", released on Take Fo' Records; Jubilee, whose given name is Jerome Temple, had been building the bounce sound at block parties in the St. Thomas development from around 1990. The word itself is far older, since the OED traces "twirk", meaning a twisting or jerking movement, to 1820, but the dance belongs to bounce. Its antecedents run to West and Central Africa. Mapouka, from the Dabou area of southeast Cote d'Ivoire and danced among the Ahizi, Alladian, Dida and Avikam peoples, entered the Ivorian music scene in 1991 and shares twerk's core action of shaking the rear while bent forward and facing away; the Ivorian government banned it from public performance and television in March 1998 as lewd and obscene, a prohibition that ended in 1999, and comparable bans followed in Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin and Cameroon. Bounce's queer performers, above all Katey Red and Big Freedia, carried the dance to national audiences from the late 1990s onward.
Cultural Significance
Twerk is Black New Orleans cultural production, developed largely by working-class Black dancers and carried nationally by Black queer and gender-nonconforming bounce artists. Its mainstream adoption from 2013 onward, most visibly through white pop performers, drew sustained and well-founded criticism for detaching the dance from that scene while its originators saw little of the resulting money or credit, and Big Freedia publicly objected that what was being presented as twerking was not the dance she had spent a career performing. Teaching or performing twerk without naming bounce is the central ethical failure in this style.
Characteristic Movement & Technique
The knees stay bent and the feet planted or shifting in a wide stance while the pelvis tilts rapidly between anterior and posterior positions, driven by the hip flexors, glutes and lower abdominals against a braced spine. Variations include standing, squatting, hands-to-knees, wall and inverted positions, with the upper body kept comparatively quiet so the isolation reads cleanly.
Partnering Dynamics
Twerk is danced solo or in groups and has no lead-follow structure. Its social setting is circular and competitive, with dancers taking turns in a ring and responding to the DJ's calls and to each other, which places it closer to a hip-hop cypher than to a partner dance.
Competitive Context
There is no formal ranking body. Competition happens socially, in bounce clubs and dance battles, and commercially through studio twerk teams and choreography contests; Big Freedia led a mass twerking Guinness World Record attempt in New York in 2013.
Regional Variations
New Orleans bounce remains the reference form, tied to the city's recurring local samples and chant structures. Atlanta and Houston developed adjacent booty-shaking traditions at different tempos, and the studio twerk taught internationally is generally a choreographed, technique-first adaptation rather than the social form.
Common Misconceptions
Twerk did not begin with Miley Cyrus's 2013 VMA performance or with social media; the dance sense of the word is attested in DJ Jubilee's 1993 bounce recording, and the movement has older West and Central African antecedents such as mapouka. It is also not simply improvised shaking, but a trained isolation requiring specific control of the pelvis, hip flexors and core.
Peak Popularity
Signature Figures
- DJ Jubilee (Jerome Temple)
- Big Freedia (Freddie Ross Jr.)
- Katey Red
Notable Codifiers
- DJ Jubilee
- Big Freedia
Twerk Music & Tempo
Drawn from 20 Twerk tracks in the LODance music library.
Example tracks at practice tempo
- Gin In My System — Big Freedia100 BPM
- Beat It Out the Frame — Sissy Nobby105 BPM
- Shake It Fo Ya Hood — Ricky B
- Best Beeleevah — Big Freedia
- I'll Take Yo Man (feat. Big Choo) — Shake Team
- Azz Everywhere — Big Freedia
Twerk on screen
Films and television where Twerk appears, with the sequences worth watching for.
This site uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.
What to Wear
Attire guidance for Twerk and other Heels & Sensual Performance dances. Each card below is sized to the moment — class, practice, social, or competition — because the wardrobe shifts as the stakes do.
Reading the cards
In Class
The shoe is the technical requirement and everything else is preference. Bring a heel with a secured ankle strap and a stable base — a block heel or a thick stiletto around 2.5 to 4 inches — not a fashion pump that slips off in a body roll; an indoor-only pair keeps the floor clean and your grip predictable. Wear something fitted so you and the teacher can see the shape your body is making, and cover your knees with long leggings or knee pads, because these classes live on the floor. If you are new, a chunky boot or even sneakers for the first class is completely normal while your ankles adapt.
Social Dancing
There is no social floor for heels dance — it is a studio and performance form — but the vocabulary travels straight to a club or party, where you wear whatever you'd wear out and the only real consideration is shoes you can actually stand in all night. In the studio, the closest thing to a social occasion is the end-of-course showcase or open class filming. Test any outfit at home first: a lot of what looks good standing still doesn't survive a floor roll or a hair flip.
Competition
Heels has no competitive circuit or costume rulebook; the equivalent is the class video shoot, the studio showcase and the choreographer's reel. Choose an outfit for how it reads on camera — clean lines, contrast against the studio wall, nothing that hides the hip and leg work — and secure anything that can shift. Practical performance rules still apply: straps double-knotted or taped, no loose jewellery, and a backup pair of shoes in the bag.
Shoes
A secured ankle strap is the one non-negotiable — a slip-on pump comes off in a body roll and takes an ankle with it. Start with a block heel or a thick stiletto around 2.5–4", with a platform if you want height without the steep pitch through the forefoot. Some dancers keep a suede-soled pair for smooth studio floors so turns release cleanly instead of catching. Indoor-only, broken in at home before class; Burju, Hella Heels and Pleaser are the common names, and a chunky boot or even sneakers is a completely normal first class.
In Practice
Practice wear is more fitted than class wear for a specific reason: this style is built on the shapes your body makes, and you cannot correct a line you cannot see. Leggings or bike shorts with a fitted top, hair in something that survives a hair flip, and knee pads under the leggings because floorwork is constant. Film yourself — mirror work and camera work show completely different things, and the camera is what most of this style is ultimately made for.
Common Pitfalls
- ✗Buying a heel with no ankle strap — it is the most common injury cause in these classes.
- ✗Bare knees on a hard studio floor; you will bruise in the first hour and stop committing to the floorwork.
- ✗Starting at 5" or higher before the ankles are conditioned.
- ✗Wearing an outfit for the first time in class or on a shoot without testing it through a floor roll at home.
- ✗Wearing your heels in on the street and then onto a studio floor — grit on the sole ruins both grip and the marley.
Price Range
- Budget: A chunky-heeled boot or strapped heel you already own, plus $15–30 knee pads. Genuinely enough for the first month.
- Mid: Pleaser or entry Burju dance heels roughly $60–120, slim sleeve-style knee pads $25–40, gel forefoot cushions and blister tape under $20.
- Premium: Hella Heels or custom-fit dance heels at roughly $150–280, a second suede-soled pair for studio floors, and outfits bought for how they read on camera rather than in the mirror.
Key Terms
- Ankle strap
- The strap that keeps the shoe on your foot through floorwork and turns. The single most important feature in a dance heel, ahead of height or brand.
- Block heel
- Wide, stable heel that spreads load and is far more forgiving for beginners than a thin stiletto.
- Platform
- Raised sole under the toe that reduces the angle of the foot — a 5" heel on a 2" platform feels like a 3" heel.
- Floorwork
- Choreography performed on the ground — the reason knee coverage or pads are standard rather than optional.
- Ladies' styling
- Solo styling vocabulary drawn from partnered Latin and club dance, taught in heels classes; danced alone here, but it comes from a partnered context.
Quick Tips
- •Suede-soled shoes allow controlled sliding and pivoting — essential for most partner dances.
- •Avoid rubber soles on dance floors; they grip too much and can cause knee injuries.
- •Bring a separate pair of clean shoes for the dance floor to keep it in good condition.
Recommended Gear for Twerk
Essential equipment and apparel selected for dancers learning Twerk.
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Sources & Further Reading
Cultural & Historical Context
Twerk emerged from New Orleans, Louisiana, United States during the 1990s—present day. Understanding the cultural roots, musical traditions, and social circumstances of this era enriches appreciation for the dance's characteristics and significance.
Formative Influences
Codifiers & Standardizers:
DJ Jubilee, Big Freedia
Signature Movement Vocabulary:
DJ Jubilee (Jerome Temple), Big Freedia (Freddie Ross Jr.), Katey Red
Primary Source Documents
The Library of Dance contains public-domain primary sources for dance history. Copyrighted modern syllabi are indexed with purchase links to their respective copyright owners. Search by dance name or codifier to discover primary source documents.
Last reviewed: September 2026 — This dance profile synthesizes historical research, cultural documentation, and contemporary practice knowledge to provide authoritative context.
More in Heels & Sensual Performance
Heels (Stiletto Dance)
Commercial choreography performed in high-heeled shoes, descended from jazz-funk and hip-hop, formalised as a weekly studio class by Shirlene Quigley at Millennium Dance Complex around 2008.
Chair Dance
A sensual or cabaret routine built around a chair as a fixed prop, using its seat, back and legs as architecture for poses, level changes and transitions.
Exotic Floorwork
The floor-based sensual vocabulary of exotic dance - crawls, knee slides, body waves, rolls and recoveries performed in heels or knee pads, taught independently of the pole.
Ladies' Styling (Lady Style)
The solo styling layer taught within salsa, bachata and Latin ballroom: arm lines, hip motion, spins, head and hair movement layered over the follower's basic footwork.
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