Finger-tutting is a type of dance that involves intricate movements of the fingers. " Tutting" is a

street dance Street dance is an umbrella term for a large number of social dance styles such as: breakdancing, popping, Locking (dance), locking, house dance, waacking, voguing, etc. Social dance styles have many accompanying steps and foundations, created o ...

style based on angular movements which are supposed to stylize the poses seen on

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

s in the art of ancient Egypt, and refers to "

King Tut Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen, (; ), was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Born Tutankhaten, he instituted the restoration of the traditional polytheistic form of an ...

". Popularity of this dance style increased after Jay Gutierrez or "Jsmooth" revealed his innovated style of finger-tutting in the credits of ''

Step Up 3D ''Step Up 3D'' (also known simply as ''Step Up 3'') is a 2010 American 3D dance film directed by Jon M. Chu and written by Amy Andelson and Emily Meyer. It serves as a sequel to 2008's '' Step Up 2: The Streets'' and the third installment in t ...

'', released August 6, 2010. Finger-tutting received international attention after dancer/choreographer Julian "JayFunk" Daniels performed in a viral Samsung commercial entitled "Unleash Your Fingers". Later, the dance group Finger Circus popularized the form through commercials and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

videos. Finger-tutting received further international attention after practitioner John Hunt, also known as Pnut, made a

viral video Viral videos are video, videos that become popular through viral phenomenon, a viral process of Internet sharing, primarily through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhon ...

entitled "Greasy Fingers". Filmed, directed and produced by Statussilver. Later, Hunt was featured prominently in the video for the

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...

song "

Shake It Off "Shake It Off" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and the lead single from her fifth studio album, '' 1989'' (2014). She wrote the song with its producers, Max Martin and Shellback. Inspired by the media scrutiny on Swif ...

". More recently, finger-tutting has been featured in the Syfy show '' The Magicians'' and the

Marvel Studios Marvel Studios, LLC, formerly known as Marvel Films, is an American film and television production company. Marvel Studios is the creator of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a media franchise and shared universe of films and television ser ...

film ''

Doctor Strange Dr. Stephen Vincent Strange is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in ''Strange Tales'' #110 (cover-dated July 1963). Doctor Strange serves as ...

'' as one of the ways in which characters can cast various spells. JayFunk helped with the finger-tutting in ''Doctor Strange''. In 2020, the

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for " Naughty" by Red Velvet's

Irene Irene is a name derived from εἰρήνη (eirēnē), Greek for "peace". Irene, and related names, may refer to: * Irene (given name) Places * Irene, Gauteng, South Africa * Irene, South Dakota, United States * Irene, Texas, United States ...

and

Seulgi Kang Seul-gi (; born February 10, 1994), known mononymously as Seulgi, is a South Korean singer and dancer. She is a member of the South Korean girl group Red Velvet (group), Red Velvet, its sub-unit Red Velvet – Irene & Seulgi, and the super ...

featured a

choreographed Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer creates choreographies thr ...

tutting performance.

References

{{Reflist Free and improvised dance