Ashea Wabe, a.k.a. Little Egypt, posing as if dancing the Hootchy-Kootchy
22 January 2023
Hootchy-kootchy, the name of an exotic and sexually suggestive dance of alleged “Oriental” origin, somewhat short of a striptease and often performed as a carnival or side-show attraction, is of unknown origin. In French it is known as danse du ventre (belly dance). The name is preceded by and is probably a variant of earlier, reduplicative forms, such as kouta-kouta and coochie-coochie. All these words can be spelled in a variety of ways. Hootchy-kootchy is unrelated to either hooch meaning liquor or hooch meaning hut or dwelling.
I have found an early use of Hoochy-Coochy as the name of a minstrel entertainer in 1890. What relation this has with the later uses is not known. From Biff Hall’s 1890 The Turnover Club:
I have been told that one night “Hoochy-Coochy” Rice, the minstrel man—they always call Billy “Hoochy-Coochy,” because he invariably says that whenever he comes on stage—entered Hoyt’s room with a dark lantern and a jimmy and stole a new song which the author had just written.
But the dance first appears a couple of years later under the name Koota-Koota, evidently first performed by a dancer named Avita. From New York’s The Evening World of 13 May 1892:
A novelty in dancing, it is announced, will be seen in “Elysium” at Herrmann’s Theatre next week. It is called the “Koota-Koota,” whatever that may mean, and is danced by Avita, an English character actress, who is said to have performed it before the Rajah during her visit to the East Indies. Isn’t that real nice?
And a few days later this advertisement for the show appeared in the New York Herald of 19 May 1892:
HERRMANN’S BROADWAY AND 29TH ST.
STANDING ROOM ONLY
Harem scene at 9:10Shapely girls,
Handsome faces,
lovely costumes,
airy gracesFLERON’S LYRIC COMEDY,
ELYSIUM.Superb scenery,
artful glances,
Laughter galore,
enchanting dances.KOOTA-KOOTA DANCE At 9:30
Seats four weeks in advance.
Avita’s Koota-Koota quickly became a sensation, imitated by any number of other dancers. And numerous dancers performed it at Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The dancer known as Little Egypt is often credited with originating the dance at the 1893 exposition, but as we have seen the dance clearly predates the fair. Little Egypt was the stage name of a number of exotic dancers at the turn of the twentieth century. At least one of these, Fahreda Mazar Spyropoulos, did perform at the exposition, but there is no evidence that she performed a dance called the hootchy-cootchy there.
We see Coochee-Coochee dance in an article about the “vice and vulgarity” at New Jersey’s Somerset County Fair in the New-York Daily Tribune of 14 September 1894:
“Come, gents, walk right up and see the ‘Couchee-Couchee Dance.’ For gents only, remember: no ladies allowed.”
The harsh tones of the frowsy “gent” who made this announcement were wafted on the clear, pure, cool air at the Somerset County Fair grounds yesterday afternoon, through the windows of the pavilion a few feet away, in which were exhibited the specimens of needle and fancy work from the clever hands of Somerset maidens and matrons.
And a few months later a Kutcha-Kutcha dance was shut down in Washington, DC. From the Washington Post of 5 December 1894:
Kutcha-Kutcha Dance Forbidden.
The Kutcha-Kutcha dance, which was put on with the Reily and Wood show at Kernan’s Theater, Monday night, was stopped yesterday by Mr. Kernan, who was much displeased with it. Yesterday morning Lieut. Amiss when to the theater and said the dance would have to stop, and was told that the dancer had already been ordered to modify and tone down her performance.
We finally see hoochy-coochy as the name of the dance in the St. Louis Republic of 18 June 1896:
The faithful pedestrians of the Merchants’ League Club were next in line, following a line of carriages made conspicuous by a red light shining on the face of one of the occupants, to-wit: Henry Ziegenhein. About the center of the Merchants’ League columns came a band playing the “hoochy-coochy” dance.
So hootchy-kootchy is reduplicative nonsense word that is simply one in a line of similar terms for exotic and sexually suggestive dances.
For a more complete history of the term and of the dance itself, see Peter Jensen Brown’s blog post on the subject. Part 1 and Part 2.
Sources:
“Among the Player Folk.” The Evening World (New York City), 13 May 1892, 5/1. Library of Congress: Chronicling America.
Brown, Peter Jensen. “The ‘Kouta-Kouta’ and the ‘Coochie-Coochie—A History and Etymology of the ‘Hoochie Coochie’ Dance.” Early Sports and Pop Culture History Blog, 4 July 2016. Part 1 and Part 2.
Green’s Dictionary of Slang, n.d., s.v. hootchy-kootchy, n.
Hall, “Biff.” The Turnover Club. Chicago: Rand, McNally, 1890, 75. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
“Herrmann’s Broadway and 29th St.” (advertisement). New York Herald, 19 May 1892, 4/1. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
“Kutcha-Kutcha Dance Forbidden.” Washington Post, 5 December 1894, 6/6. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
“M’Kinley Parade Short, Wet and Dull.” St. Louis Republic (Missouri), 18 June 1896, 9/5. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, June 2020, s.v. hootchy-kootchy, n. and adj.; December 2007, s.v. coochie-coochie, n.
“Vice and Vulgarity at a Fair.” New-York Daily Tribune, 14 September 1894, 5/4. Library of Congress: Chronicling America.
Photo credit: Benjamin Falk, c. 1895. Wikipedia Commons. Public domain photo.