The Hustle dance is an exciting, upbeat, exhilarating dance that is great fun for couples to learn. This dance was influenced by Mambo, Salsa and Swing. The Hustle is believed to have originally been a line dance that originated in the Latin communities in New York City in the 1970's and became an extremely popular dance in American culture. After some fusion with Swing, and eventually shortening the count to "&1 2 3", this dance became the present couple dance called the New York Hustle or Latin Hustle. You can see a demonstration of the Hustle dance in the Hustle video on this page.
This dance has a basic rhythm of 4 steps that are counted &1 2 3. The couples in this dance move within a "slot" on the dance floor, as opposed to traveling around the dance floor. The man leads the lady in a back and forth linear fashion known as dancing in a "slot", along the dance floor. This dance incorporates many fun turns, spins and arm styling for the lady. The Hustle can be danced to many styles of contemporary music. Again, you can see a demonstration of the Hustle dance in the Hustle video on this page.