This article is a short history of twentieth century social dance.
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The 20th Century has been called "The American Century," as it was a time when the power, prestige, and prosperity of American came into full flower.
America in 1900 was very different from the colony it had been and the colossus it was in the process of becoming. In 1900, there were just 45 states and the average American worker earned 22 cents an hour. Automobiles sold for $1500, and only eighteen people in a thousand owned a telephone. There were, of course, no radios or electric refrigerators.
The first decade was a period of energy and optimism. World leadership was shifting from England to the U.S., and economic opportunity and political freedoms made the country a magnet for immigrants. A new middle class was rising, and there was increasingly broad acceptance of the artistic and cultural contributions of immigrants from Europe, Latin America, and Africa.
The second decade was more perplexing, as headlong industrialization opened the gates to a stream of cultural changes: suffrage for women, birth control, advancement for Blacks, and progressive education. Health, fitness, and sports were popular concerns. This was also period of renewed patriotism, especially when America joined England, France, and Russia as an ally in the war against Germany.
Popular culture was energized by ragtime, the latest nationwide craze in music. In 1911, a young composer named Irving Berlin wrote "Alexander’s Ragtime Band," which became the anthem of an era. "Ragged-time" or "syncopation" (altering the intended accents in music by stressing the weak beat instead of the downbeat) was based on the rhythms of African drums. Thanks to ragtime, African American composers and musicians began to be regarded with increased interest and respect, as they worked with white musicians to create jazz--the first uniquely American music genre.
A wide variety of dances were popular in the 'teens, and some of them originated in other parts of the world.
Animal Dances were born in San Francisco, in the poorer neighborhoods. Couples grabbed each other in close embraces, scandalously kicked up their heels, and stood in odd postures with their rear ends sticking out. The movements were very playful and even improvisational, creating a wild and crazy environment on the dance floor. The list of popular animal dances reads like the directory of a zoo, with the Turkey Trot, Grizzly Bear, Kangaroo Hop, and Camel Walk being the most popular.
One of only a few dance steps to survive this era was the Foxtrot, a dance step that became common throughout the century. The general acceptance of the new style of dance reflects a culture that was ready to define its own dance styles. Though many disapproved of the new styles, Animal dances were popularly received on the whole.
Castle Walk was created and popularized by Irene and Vernon Castle. The Castles had their own style of dancing, in which they gave each step a sense of elegance. They refined and formalized the bobbing and jiggling of the Animal Dances, creating a style that was more respectable while keeping the fun of the Animal Dances. Their style created the cornerstone for twentieth-century social dance.
The Castles authored several how-to books, and by 1914, Vernon and Irene had become the toast of Broadway. Virtually everyone renounced the Turkey Trot for the more "uptown" Castle Walk. John D. Rockefeller took dance lessons from Vernon for $100 an hour, and every woman in America secretly envied--or openly imitated--Irene’s daring bobbed haircut. Their reign as the top performers in show business was both brilliant and tragically brief. As World War I loomed, Vernon, a Canadian, enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps, against Irene’s wishes. In February, 1918, he was killed in a plane crash while training a young American pilot.
Apache (pronounded "aposh") was an early Twentieth Century Parisian term for a gang of ruffians. This French reference to the Apache Indians reflects the extent to which Europeans and Americans alike exaggerated and misunderstood Native American cultures. A theatrical dance, the Apache was performed in the nightclubs of Montmartre. In an aggressive, even savage waltz, the performers acted out a relationship between a man and a woman that seesawed between intimacy and violence. A very disturbing dance form even by modern standards, the Apache demonstrates how dance can become a vehicle for the expression of aggression and tenderness. Perhaps the best-known performer of the Apache was Monsieur Maurice, a man so intense in his performances that many of his dance partners were severely injured.
Tango. With its roots in Africa, the tango traveled through Spain, the Caribbean, and Argentina before it was introduced in America. It was powerfully influenced by the machismo of the fiercely seductive Argentine cowboys and their sultry, acquiescent females.
A pretty young man of somewhat limited talents began life in Italy as Rodolfo Alfonzo Raffaeli Pierre Filibert di Valentina d’Antonguolla. In 1913, at the age of 18, he came to America, where he would become known as Rudolph Valentino--the "Great Lover" of American film. Valentino’s "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (1923) featured many Tango scenes and was instrumental in making the dance very popular.
In the Roaring Twenties, vast numbers of young men and women fled the small towns for the cities, especially Chicago or, better yet, New York. The decade was characterized by affluence, and dreams of opulence. Because alcohol was still illegal, the brewing and distilling industries became an underworld of crime. Drinking establishments were called speakeasies (because of the whispered password required for entry), and bootleggers formed gangs that would ultimately become Organized Crime.
One word swept the country’s youth in its wake, and that word was Jazz. The Jazz Age prompted behavior that scandalized the guardians of morality. As had occurred so often in the past, the social dance floor dramatized the social conflicts of the day. And, make no mistake, these conflicts were about a new understanding of shifting social relationships. One evangelist wrote: "Social dancing is the first and easiest step to Hell. The modern dance cheapens womanhood and the first time a girl allows a man to swing her around the dance floor, she has lost something she should have treasured."
The popularity of social dances was so strong that it influenced fashion. The "flappers," young women who showed freedom from convention by shedding binding undergarments so that they could dance freely, would excuse themselves upon arriving at a party and rush to the ladies' room to park their girdles. Never had women worn so little. For the first time in history, skirts were above the knee. The music was upbeat, peppy, bouncy, exuberant, and the look was sleek, unornamented, and, most of all, modern!
On October 29, 1929, Black Thursday, After near a decade of economic expansion during the Great Bull Market, the vast structure that was American postwar finance collapsed on October 29, 1929--"Black Thursday." Nothing would ever be the same.
Blackbottom was an individual and improvisational dance form, compared to the dances of previous decades. Each dancer performed his or her individual version, without regard for which steps followed which. Musical producer George White first saw the Blackbottom performed in a Harlem nightclub and bought it on the spot, introducing it to white audiences in his hit musical, "Scandals of 1926." Hop down front and then you doodle back. Mooch to your left and then you mooch to your right. Hands on hips and do the Mess Around. Break a leg until you’re near the ground.
The Blackbottom incorporated body movements never previously seen. One of the most startling was the wild and free shaking of the behind, implied in the name of the dance. Along with shimmying of the shoulders and jumping into the air, it made the Blackbottom a dance that expressed the freedom and self-expression that permeated the decade.
Charleston truly expressed the restlessness of the Twenties. A clear reflection of the African-American influence on ballroom dancing in this country, it resembled the Blackbottom in its loose form, but was its own wild and crazy self. The Charleston caught on quickly after it was introduced on stage in the Ziegfeld Follies. It could be performed solo or by couples, and it included movements that were uniquely its own. The most revolutionary was the swiveling of the feet. Dancers’ legs were turned in (knees together) rather than out (ballet-style) or in parallel. In the nineteenth centure, African American street dancers has performed "patting juba," a routine of slapping hands, knees, thighs, and body in rhythmic display. This evolved into the more pretentious 1920’s Charleston style of crossing hands back and forth on the knees as they fanned in and out. As young people of the 1920s sought new ways to articulate their new-found freedom of expression, they stumbled on new dance movements that admirably filled the bill.
The economic expansion that had made the Twenties just one long party collapsed in the Crash of 1929. Investors found themselves holding worthless stocks and bonds, and roughly a quarter of the population were unemployed. People stood in line for hours for a cup of soup and a piece of bread. Families disintegrated as the economic and emotional stresses took their toll. Many a businessmen chose to leap out of one of the skyscrapers that had begun to define the American skyline, rather than face financial ruin.
Popular music reflected these changes. Tunes of carefree delight like "Ain’t We Got Fun?" were replaced by the mournful wail of Bing Crosby's "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" (1932). Fashions reflected the times, as women retreated from the freedom of straight, short flapper dresses into more conservative attire.
The pace of life slowed, as did the pace of dance. No more exuberant Charleston—in its place, a slow foxtrot dominated the ballrooms. Some dancers tried to earn money with their feet in grueling Dance Marathons that lasted as long as six months.
Fashion and dance were affected by the latest entertainment craze, the movies. In 1927, the first motion picture with a soundtrack, Al Jolson's "The Jazz Singer," introduced the "talkies," and movie musicals became the Great Depression's great escape during the 1930s. Busby Berkeley's elaborate dance numbers gave employment to scores of dancers, but the epitome of elegance and the American Dream was the dance duo of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, who pirouetted across the stage in some of the most popular movies of the time.
By the middle of the Thirties, the American spirit of optimism had reasserted itself, and the wounds of the Depression had begun to heal. With a new, positive outlook in the air, the American rebirth began to be expressed in music and dance, especially the energetic Shag and Lindy Hop, and the frenetic Jitterbug. The Swing Era had begun.
Dance Marathons were one bizarre expression of young people's dreams to win back the prosperity that the Roaring Twenties had promised but hadn't delivered. Dance marathons flourished in the Depression, and hard economic times changed the focus of the competitions to bucks, as winning couples might make as much as several thousand dollars.
The rules were simple: contestants had to spend forty-five minutes out of every hour on the dance floor, with eleven minutes in rest quarters and four minutes to leave the floor and return. When the dance music resumed and the floor judge blew his whistle, everyone had to be in dance position. Anyone who left the floor without the judges' permission before the music ended, or who touched both knees to the floor, was disqualified.
One contestant who appeared to suffer physical distress was Pittsburgh's Mary "Ther Hercules" Promitis. Having learned that bare-fisted prizefighters pickled their hands, Mary soaked her feet in brine and vinegar for weeks before a dance marathon. So successful was the treatment that when the New York health commissioners ended one dance marathon after twenty-one weeks, Mary was still feeling no pain.
Movie Musicals were extremely popular in the Thirties, transporting viewers far from life's struggles into a dreamy world of elegance and romance. Velos and Yolanda, Georges and Jalna, and other actor-dancer couples whirled their way through many a film. But by far the biggest stars were Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The first film in which they starred together was such a smash that RKO insured Fred’s legs for $1 million. The emphasis on dance in their films made them very popular, as did their looks and the innocent way they read their lines. The public loved the magic of the Astaire and Rogers team, even though Ginger had played only a handful of roles before they joined forces, and the report on Fred’s first screen test read: "Can’t act, slightly bald, can dance a little."
Big Apple The Big Apple originated in a Black township in the deep South, in a nightclub located in a converted church that was called the Big Apple. Arthur Murray observed the dancers combining swing and square dance and popularized the new style in uptown urban culture. The Big Apple became the rage of "Cafe Society"--high-society folk who had managed to survive the stock market crash. In the Big Apple, many people would gather in a circle and take turns going to the center as the others called for them to "Shine!" They danced solo or in couples, performing a variety of steps including the Shag, a syncopated, livelier relative of the foxtrot. Because the Thirties was a decade of recovery, both economically and socially, group dancing was popular; perhaps because is "strength in numbers" suggested community and support in these difficult times.
Jitterbug was created within the Black community and achieved fame at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. Its speed, energy, and enthusiasm represented people's great relief and joy as the Depression years ended and the future began to look a little brighter. "Jitterbug" was a slang term commonly used to refer to a person's best dance partner. The movements of Jitterbug were more athletic than any dance of previous times. Variations of the Lindy Hop, which was named after Charles Lindbergh, were also popular because of their airborne acrobatics. Many a young woman was lifted, turned, and tossed wildly as the driving rhythms of Swing urged her on.
The 1940s were marked by the tragedy and dreams of a people engaged in fighting World War II. The war brought idealism and patriotism to America as never before. Every serviceman treasured images of what he would do when he returned home. Some swore they would grab the first girl they saw, and some did. Some vowed they would sleep for a month, getting up only to enjoy home-cooked meals. Although many veterans would bear the scars of war both physically and emotionally, the majority were swiftly caught up by the unprecedented prosperity of the postwar era.
The music of the war years certainly echoed the times, as Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra sang "Till Then," and "Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree With Anyone Else But Me." The upbeat, optimistic, and idealistic energies of youth were reflected in Swing, which had its roots in the Boogie-Woogie of the Thirties. Dancing to the sounds of the Benny Goodman and Glen Miller Big Bands was popular at home and even abroad, thanks to traveling performances organized by the USO.
Simultaneously, there was a huge craze for Latin music and dance, especially the soothing, sexy Afro-Cuban rhythms of the Rumba, and the fun-filled line dance called the Conga. The popularity of Latin rhythms was evident in the movies, where Latin actors like Dolores Del Rio and Carmen Miranda swiftly rose to stardom.
The Rumba was created in Cuba through a merging of African and European styles. It features a basic step-close-step pattern (slow, quick-quick), accompanied by pronounced hip movements. The Rumba was first introduced to the U.S. in the Thirties but was not widely accepted in ballrooms until the Forties, together with other Latin dances like the Mambo, Cha Cha, and Samba. Dancer Carmen Miranda and bandleader Xavier Cugat popularized the Rumba popular, along with other performers. It's not hard to imagine how this sensuous dance became popular during the postwar years, with so many love-starved servicemen coming home.
Swing was middle-class culture’s adaptation of the Jitterbug. It had the same rhythm, the same syncopated music, and the same steps, but it was less wild and featured fewer lifts and throws. Swing was very popular in the Big Band Era (which is also commonly called the Swing Era).
The Fifties brought the longest peacetime expansion in Western history. Relieved by the end of the war, the GI's came home and bought houses on the Veterans’ Plan, settling down and starting families in record numbers, as evidence by a "baby boom" that swelled the population by nearly 50%. The boom generated an interest in home-based entertainment, including backyard barbecues and parties in front of the latest invention, the television. In 1950, just 3.1 million households had TV sets, but halfway through the decade the figure had jumped to 32 million. By 1959, the average American family was sitting before the "tube" some six hours a day, prompting Edward R. Murrow to observe that TV this was the real opiate of the people.
In 1950, high society's dance master went public, as Arthur Murray and his wife Kathryn danced their way into America’s living rooms on the fledgling Dumont Television Network. Their show was called "House Party," and they cheerfully advised their viewers to "Put a little fun in your life--try dancing."
The Fifties baby boom brought increasing emphasis on youth. Since the mid-Forties, the average age of record buyers had declined swiftly, and in the early Fifties the average record store customer was in his early twenties. In 1958, teenagers were buying 70% of all recordings. Meanwhile, popular music was flooded by the wild new sound called Rock and Roll.
Television embraced Rock and Roll with the help of a well-scrubbed square in his mid-twenties. Dick Clark, the emcee of an afternoon show called "American Bandstand," played to an astounding 20 million weekday viewers. A steady stream of top Rock and Roll performers paraded before American Bandstand's Philadelphia cameras.
"Rock Around the Clock," a song by Bill Haley and the Comets, accompanied by a movie of the same title, had teenagers dancing in the theater aisles in 1955. When Bill Haley died in an airplane crash, Elvis Presley took over as "The King."
Rock and Roll began as a variation of Jitterbug but quickly became more contained, easy-going, and hard to standardize in a particular dance style. Rock was a hybrid of rhythm and blues, rockabilly, and gospel. Elvis Presley's appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956 shocked and delighted viewers, depending on their age. Dubbed "Elvis the Pelvis" by the press because of his undulating hips, Elvis's low ratings among parents just made Rock and Roll all the more wildly popular among kids. Its influence, of course, has endured to this day.
The Sixties were years of change. Attention turned away from the comfortable suburban home life of 1950s toward social issues, notably civil rights and integration. The new concerns weighed strongly among young people. Social critic Jessica Mitford wrote: "The current crop of students has gone far to shake the label of apathy and conformity that had stuck through the 50’s. This young generation was committed to shaping the future of the world."
The Sixties were characterized by wide-ranging musical styles. The issue of equal rights manifested itself in the hugely popular "Motown Sound," the infectious and harmonious style of groups like Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Ronettes, and the Drifters. In the mid-Sixties, British rock groups, led by the Beatles and Rolling Stones, invaded the U.S. with musical styles that were very different from Motown. At the end of the decade, with the anti-Vietnam War movement and the arrival of LSD, a less structured, freeform style of music and dance became popular, especially among the Hippies. Perhaps the most important contribution of the Sixties to dance was the spirit of individualistic rebellion that permeated the decade.
Twist was the first expression of individualism to arrive on the dance floor. First performed by Chubby Checker in 1962 on American Bandstand to Hank Ballard’s tune, "The Twist," it allowed each person to dance individually, moving only the hips in swinging rotation. Checker told the audience that he had invented the Twist while drying himself with a towel after taking a shower. No touching between partners was necessary.
Mod had its roots in England, in a cult of "cool," narcissistic teenagers rebelling against the high emotion of rock and roll. Mod started in London in the early Sixties and made he trip to America with the British Invasion of circa 1963. The Beatles made famous an entire Mod look that included off-beat colors, and fabrics cut in unexpected shapes. Mod dances were jerky and didn’t require a partner, as in the Jerk and the Monkey. When psychedelic drug use exploded at the end of the decade, dance became still more experimental and self-absorbed.
Hippies were young people who rejected society's by dressing unconventionally, adopting a communal lifestyle, advocating a nonviolence, and using psychedelic drugs and marijuana. In the summer of 1967, the previously inconspicuous corner of Haight and Ashbury Streets in San Francisco became the epicenter of the Hippie movement, as people arrived by the thousands for a summer-long "love-in." Not a day passed when one couldn't observe a parade of strange apparitions heading for the Haight: kids wrapped in blankets or draped in American flags, young girls wearing headbands of daisies and dancing barefoot, waving hands in the air. The Free Speech and Anti-War movements were shared by Hippies and college students, under the uniting slogan, "Make Love, Not War." Their dances were as free-form as their lifestyle and clothing, as each dancer moved the arms in wide, dreamy arcs, spinning in circles, or doing whatever movement suited the particular "trip" du jour.
When the Vietnam War ended, taking the wind from the sails of the Anti-War movement, the notion of style and fashion began to return, and true couple dancing led the way.
Discos were a popular place to pick up a dance partner. Very different from the dives and offbeat clubs of past decades, the disco attracted youth with an explosion of high-tech fantasy that included strobe lights, mirrors, fog machines, and taped music played very loud.
Clothing styles were dictated by the dance, as well as new concepts in sex appeal. Men wore tight-fitting pants, shirts open to the navel, and gold chains draped around their necks. Women’s dresses were diaphanous, nearly see-through, and short and fluttery to show off the legs while dancing. The fabric of choice for both sexes was easy-care polyester.
Disco dancing involved learned and practiced routines, turns, lifts, and other traditional dance moves. After a decade of trippy head music, a new generation learned to dance together with romantic, acrobatic, and line dances. Many of the new-old moves resembled Swing steps, e.g., the Hustle, but when danced to the insistent non-stop rhythm of disco music, they were transformed into something showier and more blatantly sexual. The popularity of John Travolta in the movie "Saturday Night Fever" exemplified this romantic, narcissistic, and competitive style of dance and fashion.
The Eighties showcased the high creativity of Black musical and dance resources. Rap became the hottest new sound, and video became the latest communication technology.. Never had there been such a rapid jump from the street to Madison Avenue, as with the twin marketing shooting stars that were Rap and music video. Musicians incorporated dance in their shows as never before (or hired backup dancers), bringing a return of social dance to the living rooms of any family with a cable subscription that included the MTV network.
The Eighties was also witnessed the advent of AIDS. This mysterious killer played a significant role in the development of dance styles. The Lambada, for example, was a short-lived dance craze that expressed young peoples’ need for alternative ways of expressing intimacy. As was the case with just about every new dance form of the century, the youth of the period popularized a variety of dance forms, most of which were done without the need for a partner. This individualistic style manifested itself in the development of different music forms, each of which was accompanied by its own dance style.
Break Dancing had its origins in New York City where inner city youths ‘broke out’ of the stylized disco scene. They reached back to the acrobatic styles of African American performers from the 30’s, such as the Nicholas Brothers and Earl "Snakehips" Tucker, synthesizing these with traditional African movement which isolated body parts (i.e. the Robot). This was a very competitive dance form in which mostly male dancers competed in the street and nightclub contests.
Punk was an aggressive style of music and dance that expressed a dissatisfaction with society through a kind of impersonal violence. Their clothing featured chains, pins, and lots of black, and their dancing was a form of physical chaos. ‘Pogo’ dancing, which involved jumping up and down in one place, was very popular. It was not uncommon for people to purposely bash into one another while dancing (known as Slam Dancing), and to fall to the ground to writhe and vibrate on the dance floor.
Moon Walk is actually a specific step made popular by the immensely successful dancing of Michael Jackson. He demonstrated an ability to perform the Break style of dance, but went on to define what amounts to his own style of Break which the youth of the world emulates even today.
So here we are, finally arriving to the final decade of the 20th century. The influence of ‘Street Culture’ has remained strong among the youth of today. Interestingly, however, there is word of a resurgence of Swing dancing and the Big Band sound in many larger cities throughout America. The rise in popularity of Country Western dancing is also indicative of society’s ever-cyclical return to couple dancing. What kind of music and dance styles become popular in the second half of this decade is very difficult to forecast, given the variety of interests that exist now.
Vogue is a dance form originally created in transvestite fashion shows and made popular by Madonna’s music video. A complete regiment of poses incorporating hands and legs, accompanied by an emotionless facial attitude, define the style. It is a dance form performed alone, and new poses are continually created by enthusiasts.
Hip Hop is a new form of Break dancing that is done to Rap music. It is a very strong style of dance that incorporates isometric movements in conjunction with sharp weight transfers. Both Rap and Hip Hop are styles that stress the rapper’s and dancer’s individuality.
Country Western dancing has been around in one form or another throughout American History. It has always been a popular dance style particularly in rural areas of the country, but has begun to become all the rage in the big cities as well. Line dancing, quite the rage in the discos of the Seventies, is particularly popular. Certain Line dances are performed to specific songs, and are completely choreographed. Much of the Country Western dance vocabulary is taken directly from moves popular in many different decades, most notably the 40’s and 50’s. The music played at any Country Western dance club will include a variety of styles, including Waltz, Swing, and Fox Trot. With this range of music styles, of course, comes a variety of dance styles as well; One-step, Two-step, Triple-step, Shuffle, Swing, and Waltz. Something for just about everyone!
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