It still blows my mind that in the original "YMCA" video, they do not do the dance. It's just the Village People singing on the streets of New York in a "we didn't get a location permit" sort of way and doing generic disco dancing. There's a part where you think they're going to do it, they put their arms up on "Y"... and then clap. Mindblowing.
It's also 0% a secret how gay this is. I mean, they're singing outside the Ramrod. And... look at them. This was not some esoteric code that people in the 70s were too naive to decipher.
Anyway, shout out to whatever camp counselor, in both senses of the word, made this into a cute letter-arms dance for kids. You definitely knew what you were doing.
did a few seconds of research and the official story is that the dance originated on "American Bandstand" where the audience spontaneously started doing the arm letters
also I don't think I realized that none of the Village People played an instrument. and there's only one guy who sings lead on every song. the other six spend most of their time just kinda trying to look busy.
