Twerking meaning: what the word means and where the dance comes from

What twerk means

As a verb, twerk describes a dance in which the dancer shakes or bounces the hips and buttocks while squatting low, often with hands on the knees or the floor. As a noun, a twerk is one go at it. Twerking is the act, and a twerker is the person doing it.

The word was in use in New Orleans bounce music in the 1990s, where dancers and MCs called on crowds to twerk. It spread through hip hop in the 2000s and became a mainstream word in the 2010s, when dictionaries added it. The movement itself is older than the word: dances built on isolating the hips exist across West Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.

The roots: bounce, dancehall, carnival

New Orleans bounce gave the dance its name and its beat: fast, call-and-response tracks made for a crowd that moves from the waist. Jamaican dancehall has its own vocabulary of hip movement, including the wine, a slow, circular roll of the hips that dancers take down to the floor and back. Brazilian funk and the samba of carnival add speed and footwork; Caribbean soca adds stamina.

In the women on this site you can see all of it. Ronke, who coaches dancehall in London, is all about the slow wine and keeping the count. Shay, who runs twerk classes in Atlanta, is pure bounce. Fabiana, a carnival costume maker in Salvador, tests every costume with a samba. Lamia leads belly dance classes in Montreal, an older tradition of hip isolation with a very different mood.

The basic moves

Most twerk instructors start the same way. Feet wider than the hips, toes slightly out, knees bent and soft, weight back as if you are about to sit. Hands on the knees or the thighs. From there, the pelvis tilts forward and back while the chest stays still: that is the basic bounce. Speed it up and it becomes a shake; slow it down and roll it and it becomes a wine.

Other names you will hear: the drop, where the dancer sinks low on the beat; the jiggle, a fast, loose shake; the clap, a rhythmic version that hits the beat hard; and the back-to-the-wall variations, which are as hard as they look. Every one of them depends on strong legs and a loose lower back.

Twerking as a workout

Twerk fitness classes are common now, and for good reason: holding a squat while moving the hips works the glutes, thighs and core hard. Instructors usually warm up the hips and lower back first and build the bounce slowly. If you are trying it for real, a good class matters more than anything you read online.

And on this site

TubeXXXAss is an adult site with invented AI women, several of whom are dancers and instructors. Their loops show the moves, and their chats often start as a lesson: Shay counting you in, Ronke making you watch the mirror. It is fantasy for grown-ups, not a dance course. If you came here for the meaning of the word, you have it; if you came for the dancers, the guide is one click away.