People began dancing without a partner in large groups back in the 1950s with the birth of rock 'n' roll. That trend continued into the '60s and '70s with soul music. Women adapted dances such as the twist and the mashed potato into groovier, free form dance moves such as the Boogaloo. Men often did dances such as the robot and many of them isolated their arms, hips and chests in locking dances that were the precursor to break dancing. Locking became quite trendy on the '70s dance show "Soul Train." Both men and women did the funky chicken, which consisted of flapping their arms and stepping like chickens.
Soul songs often sang about love and had grooves that inspired couples to dance together. Couples did a version of the hustle that was slightly different than the disco hustle. They held both hands loosely then let go of one hand to each step out the side. The man would then often twirl the woman under his arm before pulling her back to him again. The bump was another partner dance that got its own twist for the soul style. It was most often done to faster songs and couples would take a step away from each other before stepping back together and bumping their hips together.
The stroll dated back to the days of '50s rock 'n' roll and it inspired new stroll dances in the soul era of the late '60s and through the '70s. By then they were often called line dances, although two types of dances had that name. Stroll line dances were done with two lines of people facing each other and step-touching their way to the end of the line. Once a couple reached the end of the line, they took their turn dancing down between the two lines, showing off their individual spotlight moves. The Soul City Walk and Show Time were two such trendy stroll line dances of the era.
The other type of line dancing in the soul era was similar to modern day line dances. They consisted of a group of people in lines doing the same steps together at the same time. Groups were taught line dances such as The Booty Call or the Bus Stop and would do the moves in sync. The Electric Slide came out around 1976 and became a well known soul line dance. It was known as a "four wall" dance because dancers would step to the side, forward or back and then hop to switch positions and face another wall. Many different versions of the Electric Slide have been created since its birth.