My team’s dance of choice is the Charleston; a dance named for the city of Charleston, South Carolina’s harbor. The rhythm of the Charleston was made popular through established music made for dancing through a song called “The Charleston” in the United States during 1923. The Charleston got its start and peaked in popularity from 1926 through 1927. Although this seems short-lived, that does not mean the dance was not popular among the general public for years after. It lead a “short life” on the entertainment business portion of dance, however was influential to the dance culture in a way that can be understood through a rhythmic dancing and tap lense.
Digging into the Charleston’s point of origin, it is believed that its roots can stretch out as far as Nigeria and Ghana. It was first adopted by Black communities in the South and a new rhythmic phenomenon was born. This occurred as early as 1903 and was used in the stage act known as the Whitman Sister stage act in 1911. Later on, it was adopted by the city of Harlem in 1913. By this time, there were tens of thousands of black people living in Harlem and they were highly influential in the popularization of the Charleston dance. However, with all of its popularity in this area, it did not become internationally popular until in 1923 the musical known as Runnin' Wild, made its debut. The original version of the Charleston was much “wilder” and less formalized than the later established ballroom version of the dance.
During the 1920s, young men and women ditched the moral restrictions laid out by their parents’ generation and chose to live their lives in a way that allowed them to freely express themselves. Their actions, the way they dressed, and the way they carried themselves began to transform. This shift in behavior led to changes in appearance that were frowned upon by many of the older generations, especially because the consumption of alcohol, smoke, and excess amount of makeup being put on their bodies. Most importantly, dancing became less constricted. As opposed to dancing the dances that were popular and viewed as the social norm, such as the two-step or the waltz, the newly freed generation created the Charleston.
An important group of people who danced the Charleston can be known as Flappers. The term "flapper" first was created in Great Britain after World War I and was used to characterize young girls who were still somewhat awkward in their movements and had not yet fully entered grown womanhood. These young girls definitely fit the profile of the younger generation adopting the Charleston dance as described earlier.
The Charleston dance could be performed anywhere but for the more ballroom area adopted forms, it was done on a stage in a formal setting. In the general public, the dance could be performed anywhere at anytime for the pure enjoyment. Interestingly, it can be done by oneself, with a partner or with a group of people. This proves it to be a versatile dance, giving it room to reach multiple people at once, creating a sense of unity.
The Charleston is constructed by a simple set of footwork and movements combined with swaying arms to create contrast and rhythm throughout the movements. Before I get started on the complicated movements, it would make sense to describe the basics first. To begin, the right foot is moved back one step and the left kicks backward while the right arm moves forward. The next step entails the left foot moving forward followed by the right foot as the right arm flows backward. An additional hop between steps and the swiveling feet is added as well for a sense of “bounce”. The simplicity of the dance allows for may variations and creativity to take place, such as the addition of a knee-up kick, the addition of an arm grazing the floor, and even going side to side with the arms or knees. Now, this may sound simple enough, however, it can get tricky with the contrast of movements and swaying of the arms. In order to execute this dance correctly and in a way that people would want to watch, one must have a sense of rhythm so that one’s limbs are able to flow freely. If done stiff, the dance loses its energy and appears to be awkward.
A particularly famous dancer named Josephine Baker added moves to the Charleston that made it appear to be a silly dance. She would cross her eyes from time to time to create a comedic atmosphere and get a laugh out of the crowd. Josephine Baker played a huge role in the Charleston’s spread to Europe when she traveled to Paris as a part of the La Revue Negre in 1925. She also was very influential in the United States and helped the Charleston become recognized in her home country. I am not saying that she was the most important person or the only person to help get the dance exposure, but rather that it can be seen that she is very much an essential part of the spread of the dance overseas.
As for the overall attire for the Charleston dance, people wore a wide variety of clothing. From fancy dresses, to short skirts, women typically dressed in a way that made a fashion statement. These dresses were flashy and occasionally had fabric materials dangling from the ends of the dress’ many layers. A majority of men could be spotted wearing a tailored tuxedo or semi casual suit with a vest and tie or a jacket on top. Their shoes were shiny and bold. People would also wear a hat as well as an accessory accompanied by some jewelry and some makeup. The “dressy” clothing worn was ideal for this dance since there is not a ton of splitting or flexibility required to execute it. However, the attire had to be able to give the person room to move about freely and use their arms and legs extensively. Men would wear slightly baggier pants and jackets to improve their mobility, but this is not to say that people did not wear tighter tuxedos as well. The diversity and popularity of this dance even allowed people to take part in street clothing since it was so popular for group settings and hangouts. The apparel seen in many photos are from performances and have very similar outcomes in appearances, but if you were to look at people dancing on the streets or in their homes, they were not bound to any dress code as performers were.
The music for the Charleston dance has been proven to vary widely amongst a large spectrum of music over the years. Usually the music is of an uptempo kind and has some sway to it. Back when the dance was being spread throughout the world and was becoming recognized, people would dance to pianos, trumpets, stringed instruments, and various other woodwinds and percussion. Today, the dance can be done to almost any form of music. One of the sources my group used to learn the dance had Beyonce music playing in the background. I found this funny since it is such an old dance but was being combined with one of the popular artists of the present day.
The significance of this dance throughout culture was significant as it brought people together and created a sense of unity while allowing room for entertainment to take form as well. There is no doubt that this dance made a ton of money from entertainment and helped performers become better recognized in their craft. The society of the times during this time was highly influenced by a dancing culture combined with a keen sense of competition among those in seek of show business. For the “average Joe”, this dance brought some happiness mixed in with a way to communicate through the art of dance with peers.
Upon reconstructing this dance, I learned that in order to dance it well, one must have a sense of rhythm. I had to learn how to make my arms and legs move in ways that felt uncomfortable before the dance could actually look good. I learned to admire people who do this daily since this was not easy. Even teaching this dance will be difficult, and this further helps me to appreciate the people who created the dance and shared it among their community as well as spread it across the vast oceans.
I wanted to reconstruct this dance because I wanted to focus on a dance that had simple, yet challenging footwork. I also wanted to be able to find a dance that could be tied to both black and white culture to see how it influenced the combining of these two cultures in a sense. For me, the dance told a story of time and created a sense of enjoyment with a sense of strolling along a neighborhood once the arm movements were added into the mix. As I said earlier, the movements in this dance are very fluid but do entail some aspects of contrast where the legs and arms move against one another. This created a complex motion indicating a joyful “strolling” sensation. I personally enjoyed dancing this dance to Beyonce’s music since I enjoy listening to her music more than that of the older genre. I feel more comfortable dancing to this kind of more modern music since I feel it has more “bounce” to it and gives me a sense of rhythm. Of course there was some reading involved in my research on this dance, however in order to learn the dance fully, my group and I went on the internet and watched different videos to help us see what it looked like. It would have been proved difficult to learn the dance solely based on words depicting the actions necessary to dance. This I feel had us dancing in the style of the people we learned the dance from which was most likely influenced by people who taught them the dance when they were learning. This created a sense (for me) that I was learning the dance from people who taught it a long time ago even though I was watching someone from present day dance it.