Letkajenkka — “Letkis” — is a fun line dance based on the jenkka, where everyone holds the waist of the person in front and kicks and hops together.
In 1963 Erik Lindström introduced the letkajenkka, a new and very simple dance built on the jenkka rhythm, and a few months later Rauno Lehtinen's tune “Letkis” became its biggest hit. “Letka” means a line or chain in Finnish: dancers form a long snake, each holding the waist of the person in front, and move together in kicks and hops. Because the steps take seconds to learn, the dance spread like wildfire — in 1964 and 1965 it became a craze across Europe and far beyond, played at parties, in schools and on television. Letkis still appears at Finnish weddings, school dances and parties whenever a crowd wants to dance together.
