PUNTERS learnt how to dance the hand jive while soaking up the vintage fashion at the Coolangatta Heritage Open Day yesterday.
The day celebrated the days of the Hokey Pokey dance, also known as the hand jive, made famous by Doug Roughton who sang “It’s hot in Brisbane but it’s cool in Gatta”.
The dance became a regular occurrence at Greenmount Beach at Coolangatta.
Swing On Into Dance owner Chrissy Keepence taught people how to do the Hokey Pokey at the open day.
“There seemed to be a couple of hundred people there learning how to do it and we played three songs,” Ms Keepence said.
“Everyone had a really great time,” she said.
She said many people did not know the hand jive was something being done in 1943 in Coolangatta.
Mark McDonald donned retro clothing and got into the jiving on Greenmount.
Mr McDonald said the Hokey Pokey was “dead easy” to learn.
“It felt nice doing something nostalgic, it felt like you were back in the ’40s or ’50s as most of us dressed up in that retro look,” he said.
He said about 40 people had a go at the hand jive on the grass outside the surf club to the amusement of onlookers.
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