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Charo is taking ownership of a dance that took over the world nearly 30 years ago.
In the mid 1990s, the “Macarena” dance was so inescapable that Gen Xers and many millennials can still do it to this day. There was nary a school dance, cruise ship or club that didn’t include the Los del Río hit and a cavalcade of dancers repeatedly shaking their bodies, extending their arms, then turning their palms up, then placing their hands on their shoulders, cradling their head in their hands momentarily, and moving them to their gyrating hips. Heyyyy, Macarena, Ay!
On Wednesday, July 2, the 74-year-old Spanish actress Charo shared an Instagram video of herself performing the famed routine. “Hola amigos. I want to share with you a little history that I hope you like,” she penned. “Once upon a time when my cuchi-cuchi was only a kichi-kichi I introduce to America a cute song and dance like aerobic exercise by the name Macarena…” In her native Spanish language, she then encouraged her followers to “dance, dance, dance” if they’re feeling down.
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The story of the song and dance is a little convoluted.
In 1993, Los del Río, a Spanish pop duo, recorded the earworm, and several other groups covered it. The song then got a resurgence in 1995 after the Miami-based Bayside Boys remixed it. The following year, the dance craze surrounding the song took off, propelling it to No. 1 on the Billboard chart for 14 weeks.
Still, the birth of the “Macarena” dance itself is up for debate: Some claim audience members created it, while most others point to Mia Frye, who choreographed the 1996 music video, which featured people of all races and backgrounds doing the oh-so-memorable routine. Charo, though, believes she brought it to the States after being inspired by Flamenco dancing.
In 1996, during Jerry Lewis’s MDA Labor Day Telethon, the Tiger by the Tail star even taught the dance to the host, saying, “I try to teach you Macarena, because it’s the No. 1 dance in the world, and I’m the one that started the whole thing.”
