Spanish Dancer

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Spanish dancer, do the spits, Spanish dancer, do high kicks, Spanish dancer, do the kangaroo, Spanish dancer, out skidoo!" Other verses may have Tillie the Toiler sit on a boiler or Buster climb a tree and throw a kiss
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan); Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes cites version bacy to 1939, but some of these may be mixed
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 51, "Spanish Dancer" (1 text); cf. p. 61, "Not Last Night" (combining this verse with "Not Last Night But the Night Before")
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #81, "(Little Spanish dancer do the splits, splits, splits)"; #82, "(Spanish dancers do the splits, splits, splits)" (2 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p.118, "Spanish dancer, do the splits" (1 text); cf. p. 130, "I can do a polka, I can do a split" (1 text, which looks as if it might be a freestanding fragment of this)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #626, "Spanish dancers do the splits" (1 text)
MidwestFolklore, Vance Randolph, "Jump Rope Rhymes From Arkansas" Volume 3, Number 2 (Summer 1953), p. 80, "(Betty, Betty, turn around)" (1 text, which opens with a version of "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs" but ends with "Spanish Dancer")
Roud #19424
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Not Last Night But the Night Beforer" (lyrics)
cf. "How About a Date?" (lyrics)
cf. "Texaco, Texaco" (lyrcs)
cf. "Tillie the Toiler Sat on a Boiler" (lyrics)
cf. "I Know a Woman" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dolly Dimple Can't Do This
File: ZiZa051A

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography