Elvis's Ankles (none New Wavier part 172)

 

What on earth is Elvis Costello doing with - and to - his ankles in this video? 

Throughout, but there's a particularly alarming sequence of bends from 2.41 seconds through to the end of the promo. 

I wonder if in later life Costello suffered from having done these ankle bends, in the same way that ballerinas who do pointe work -  dancing not so much on the tips of their toes as the ends of their toes, putting incredible pressure on the nail - can be left with permanent damage.... 

No information about that I can glean but I did find something about how EC developed this party trick:

He does it a bit in this video, but not as often and not quite as twinge inducing in the viewer 

Also in this one 

The ankle bends, but the whole repertoire of Costello moves,  is a prime example of New Wave's performative rhetoric - announcing that Verily We are In a New Era of Rock. C.f.  Devo's herky-jerks,  Fay Fife's hand-jive in the Rezillos and body posture, Pauline of Penetration, et al. 

Yet it also seems to hark back vaguely to rock'n'roll and the Fifties - the kind of foot work done by Elvis Presley. With EC's bug-eyed speccy image,  there's also the ghost of Buddy Holly.  

In this video, the Performative Rhetoric is mostly done with the face. 

The My Aim Is True album artwork points to ankle stress but is not enough to pain the viewer

"Can't stand up properly? Well, it's hardly surprising, given how you are treating your feet" - lots of alarming looking fool's splay in this video 

 

The extreme bends in "Pump It  Up" reminded me of this classic wince-maker of an album art image from around the same time