Elvis Presley’s dance moves were incredibly controversial in the 1950s. Critics slammed his hip-shaking as vulgar and cautioned people against watching him. According to Elvis’ friend, though, the dance moves were just Elvis’ way of hiding his stage fright. If he wasn’t dancing, the audience would be able to see the musician trembling with fear.

Elvis Presley’s dance moves were a way to hide his fear from the audience

Some of Elvis’ earliest musical influences were connected to the church. He said that he shaped his performing style after the pastors he watched as a child.

“I remember sometimes in church, you would listen to the choir and all of them would have great voices,” Elvis said, per the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “But it was often the preacher, who might not have had as good a voice, who was jumping around and getting them all worked up, who was the center of it all. It was like a bit of a show. And good.”

In his earliest shows, though, Elvis’ friend and future bodyguard Red West said the musician danced to conceal his fear.

“Elvis told me later that he used to shake and swing himself around rather than stay still,” West said. “He said he did this because if he stayed still the audience would see him shaking and quivering with fright. Of course, later on it wasn’t nerves that made him shake.”

Elvis did not think his dance moves were inappropriate 

Though critics called out Elvis’ vulgar dancing, he didn’t think there was anything wrong with his moves. In 1972, he thought that his dance moves were nothing compared to what newer acts were doing.

“Man, I was tame compared to what they do now!” he said during a press conference (per Elvis Australia). “Are you kidding? I didn’t do anything but just jiggle, you know?”

A television program made Elvis promise not to dance

Though Elvis thought the dance moves were no problem, other figures in the entertainment industry disagreed. He performed on The Milton Berle Show in 1956 and his dancing caused such controversy that people demanded that NBC cancel his upcoming appearance on The Steve Allen Show. 

“There has been a demand that I cancel him from our show,” Allen said, per the book Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. “As of now he is still booked for July 1, but I have not come to a final decision on his appearance. If he does appear, you can rest assured that I will not allow him to do anything that will offend anyone.”

The network told Elvis to stand completely still while he sang. They also put a basset hound wearing a bow tie and top hat in front of him and instructed him to sing to her. The performance went over without controversy, but Elvis counted it among the most humiliating moments of his career.