“ Like a full body dry heave ” is how George Costanza described Elaine Benes ’s sticky dance move during a work function in “ The Little Kicks , ” a 1996 episode ofSeinfeld . The sequence , which horrifies spectator , is a marvel of strong-arm drollery thanks toJulia Louis - Dreyfus . Elaine , unmindful to her full want of rhythm , seizes and gyrates like a mobster being shot down in a 1940s B movie .
That nugget of an idea — a person completely unselfconscious about their frenzied dance — actuallyoriginatedwith a real person who worked for NBC : Lorne Michaels , stories Godhead of the longsighted - runningSaturday Night Live .
consort toSeinfeldwriter Spike Feresten , who penned “ The Little Kicks , ” the idea for the segment came when he was ferment as a receptionist onSNL . speak with source Jennifer Keishin Armstrong forSeinfeldia : How a Show About Nothing change Everything , Feresten bear on that he observed Michaels dancing at anSNLafter - party one night and was bewitch at how tough Michaels was .
Michaels , Armstrong compose , “ was dancing as if he ’d never realise another human dancing before . ” He “ heaved and gyrate ” to a metre “ only he could palpate . ”
The melodic theme made it through the gauntlet atSeinfeld , a production famous for being rather discriminating when it came to plat episodes . And while Feresten said he establish some of Michael ’s moves for Louis - Dreyfus , the actress work on them at length herself , even demonstrating them for her family . When they were deemed sufficiently terrible , she execute them during filming .
The terpsichore has since involve on cult condition . Each year , the small league Brooklyn Cycloneshosta Elaine Dance Contest in which watcher are invited to give it their honest . ( Or , more accurately , their worst . ) The winner receives a trophy , though none have yet to replicate the streak of Louis - Dreyfus : She ’s an 11 - time Emmywinner , though only one of them was forSeinfeld .
