Dance Like a Chicken Day is observed each year on May 14th! This is an entertaining day from start to finish! Everyone has probably danced the “Chicken Dance” at least once in their lifetime. This silly fun song is popular at wedding dances, Oktoberfest, and other celebrations. The song gets people of all ages up and moving on the dance floor.
Written in the 1950s by Werner Thomas, a Swiss accordionist, the Chicken Dance didn’t even make it to the United States until sometime in the 1970s. The Chicken Dance is associated with polkas or oom-pah-pah music. Originally written with the name Der Ententanz (The Duck Dance) it was rumored to have been written as a drinking song for Oktoberfest [not true: Werner Thomas composed the song 1957 and preformed it in his one-person show. It was discovered by Belgian music producer Louis Julien van Rijmenant in Davos in 1973. Source]. The song’s name was later changed to Vogeltanz (The Bird Dance).
Upon arriving in America in the 1970s, the song had acquired choreography with repetitive beak, wing, and tail motions as well as the new name, The Chicken Dance.
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