The Rockability Craze
Origins
Socks hops—many people have heard of them but few people actually know what they are. If you're like me, you think that it would sound like a kind of juke box, or a strange laundry strategy, but you might be surprised to learn that socks hops are actually a dance.
Sock hops find their origins back in the America of the WWII era, when they may have started as an effort to raise money for the war. While their exact origins are unclear, they became a popular activity in post-WWII America among high school and college kids alike.
Sock hops were often held in school gymnasiums or even cafeterias. In order to protect varnished floors of the time, students were required to take off their shoes and dance in their socks, so they became known as "sock hops" or just "hops" for short.
A Modern Take on a Classic
BYUSA Vintage Swing aims to preserve and teach vintage American dances, and dance culture, so we'll be bringing students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the excitement of the sock hops of the 1950s, teaching era-style dances, as well as a little history along the way, in our November Harvest Hop Sock Hop Dance.