hokey-pokey

After a couple rounds of the hokey-pokey in their dance space, I knew I just had the best date ever.

In the United Kingdom—where its long, strange history begins—the hokey-pokey is known as the hokey-kokey.

“Now I want you to put your left foot forward, then pull it back. Put your right foot forward, pull it back. Don’t go anywhere, just do a little hokey-pokey for me.”

Whether the lyrical theme is love, rage, jealousy, sorrow, humility, a damaged political system or how to do the hokey-pokey, lyrics arrive bundled with melody and rhythm, and the result is a sublime and potent mnemonic device.

Unschooled, synapse-challenged, her audience nevertheless could tell the difference; they knew the distinction “between Beethoven and the Hokey-Pokey.”