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Everyone watching this performance sure did forget about their worries and their strife. The couple had no idea the song was coming up, but once it started, they were determined to put on a good show.

During the SwingVester Strictly Open competition, the people participating saw an amazing swing dance performance of The Bare Necessities, the much-loved song from the Disney movie The Jungle Book.

Laszlo Tarkanyi and Stefanie Tschom took to the dance floor hand in hand, determined to show the audience something unique. The format of the competition was that the dancers had no idea what they were dancing to until it played. Instead, they had to improvise to whatever they heard.

The host asked the couple how they were feeling. Laslo responded that they were in an adventurous mood. The audience was keen to see how this would manifest in their performance.

As the song started playing, Laszlo grasped Stefanie and they started moving.

They opened with a slow spin on the spot, which eventually got faster, and lower for Stefanie.

When the lyrics kicked in, the couple made the dancefloor their own, gracefully sliding back and forth.

Then, when Stefanie started twisting through Laszlo’s arms, the audience started cheering and laughing. Their dance to this song shouldn’t have worked, but it did!

Then the couple held each other’s backs and started stepping back and forth elegantly. This brought even more laughter from the audience. Such a silly song fit the elegant moves in a really weird way!

Even more laughter came when Stefanie danced under Laszlo’s leg and back out again. This must have been the most creative swing dance of the day!

At the end of the song, the couple got a standing ovation. They bowed down to the people in the room, clearly pleased that their unique performance was so appreciated.

The judges loved the performance so much that they decided to award it first place!

This swing dancing competition took place in Germany, proving that swing dancing is not just an American thing!

The Bare Necessities is definitely one of the best songs to come out of Disney. It’s just so catchy and fun.

It was also recorded in what many people consider to be the best year for music in all history, 1967. Just think, the soundtrack to The Jungle Book was released in the same year as The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club, The Doors’s The Doors, Aretha Franklin’s I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, The Velvet Underground & Nico’s The Velvet Underground & Nico and much much more.

Amazingly, The Bear Necessities lost the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was nominated, but Dr Doolittle’s Talk to the Animals beat it. Just imagine if the dancers had had to move to that song instead!

Like all of the other amazing music from 1967, children and adults alike will be dancing to The Bare Necessities for years and years to come.

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Source: West Coast Swing, Songfacts