An internet search reveals that the phrase entered popular culture in the 1894 song “The Sidewalks of New York” and has proven to be a resilient idiom. Consider the classic 1967 Procol Harum song “A Whiter Shade of Pale” which features the phrase “we skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor.”
These not so frivolous thoughts arose upon listening to the latest CD from Valmar Kurol and Michael Stibor. Their instrumental dance stylings recording, Dancing with Antarctica arrived as a pleasant surprise. As Kurol writes in the introduction to the record’s liner notes, Antarctica has not been deeply associated with either dancing or music. Hence, “in the spirit of fun”—which certainly is reflected by both Milton and Procol Harum—the duo “chose Antarctic themes and events, some serious and others less so, that [they] could illustrate with various styles of dance music that seemed to fit the stories.”
