The Bunny Hop

(1952-Present)

Introduction

The Bunny Hop is a 1950s novelty dance invented by the students of Balboa High School in San Francisco in the spring of 1952. Upon hearing of the dance, bandleader Ray Anthony wrote a tune to accompany it, and a timeless dance craze was born [TM53].

A decade later, the Bunny Hop was revived in the form of the Finnish Letkiss.

The Dance

The Footwork

Point right toe out to side twice (1, 2), point left toe out to side twice (3, 4). Then jump straight forward with both feet (5), jump back with both feet (6), and jump forward with both feet three times (7, and, 8) [NS52, PI53, RA53, CR55]. A more exuberant version replaces the toe points with kicks [RA53, LW57].

The Formation

The Bunny Hop is danced in a single file line, with your hands on the waist of the dancer in front of you [NS52, PI53, CR55, LW57].

The Music

Here are the original Ray Anthony recordings (both vocal and instrumental) for the dance:

Sources

NS52 — Nancy Sheppeard. (1952, November 2). "Bunny Comes Back to High School Crowd." The Salina Journal (Salina, KS).
PI53 — The Philadelphia Inquirer (pub.). (1953, March 1). "The Bunny Hop." The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PN).
RA53 — Ray Anthony. (c. 1953). The Ray Anthony Show [TV Show Episode]. United States.
TM53 — Time Magazine (pub.). (1953, January 26). "New Pop Records." Time Magazine. New York.
CR55 — Capitol Records (pub.). (c. 1955). The Bunny Hop [Instructions on Back of Record Sleeve]. United States.
LW57 — Lawrence Welk. (c. 1957). The Lawrence Welk Show [TV Show Episode]. United States.

For more dance descriptions, see our three books on dancing:
The Book of Mixers: 100 Easy-Teach Dances for Getting Acquainted (2022) by Richard Powers and Nick & Melissa Enge,
Cross-Step Waltz: A Dancer's Guide (2019) by Richard Powers and Nick & Melissa Enge, and
Waltzing: A Manual for Dancing and Living (2013) by Richard Powers and Nick Enge.

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