Part four: The 1930's & Big Apple

Fred  & Ginger in Swingtime (1936)

The newly constructed and delightfully Art Deco Empire State and Chrysler Buildings lit up the New York City skyline just as The Great Depression was about to take hold. It was the 1930s and many were beginning to ask ‘brother, can you spare a dime?’ 

Thanks to AllPosters.com

As before, when hard times arrived, people hit the dancefloor to forget their troubles. Silver screen dance icons Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers popularised Tap dancing and Ballroom amongst cinema goers worldwide, their enduring finesse delighting audiences. Their last film of the decade celebrated ballroom superstars of the Edwardian era: Vernon & Irene Castle.

courtesy of  memorylane.org.uk

In the UK, Ballroom dancers were being treated to sumptuous live music. Numerous London hotels held regular dance band nights. Notable bandleaders to search out and listen for include Bert Ambrose, Jack Hylton and Ray Noble. Al Bowlly’s recordings of songs such as Love is the Sweetest Thing and The Very Thought Of You also epitomised the British sound. Al Bowlly delivered the lines in a new approach; rather than vocal gymnastics sometimes employed by jazz vocalists, he was known for singing in a soft, low voice. This style of soothing, sentimental singing would heighten in popularity during wartime. We know this is as ‘crooning’.

Hear the words ‘The Big Apple’ and you’ll probably soon think of New York City. But did you know The Big Apple was also the name of a dance craze that swept the USA in the 1930s? The Big Apple was the name of an African American nightclub in Columbia, South Carolina. The story goes that three young white teenagers attended the club and saw group of dancers, in the centre of the dancefloor, doing jazz steps in sync.

Picture a barn dance but people dancing solo, in a circle, ‘hokey cokey’ style, and cross it with fast, live big band swing music. What have you got? The Big Apple! These teenagers told their friends, who told their friends, and soon, the dance now known as The Big Apple had crossed over into popular white culture. African Americans had known how cool this was for years but it was in 1937 that the dance was featured in Life Magazine and President Roosevelt himself saw it being danced by his family. It would also feature in many Hollywood movies. 

The routine immortalised in the 1939 film Keep Punchin (footage above) is the one reprised by swing dancers today. Back then the steps would continually change, improvisation being an inherent feature of dances of the jazz age and swing era. Another essential group activity in swing scenes globally is the ‘jam circle’. The dancers form a circle and clap (on the 2 and the 4) and those brave enough go into the middle and strut their stuff. Best practice when starting at this is: spend 1 or 2 bars of music to establish your place in the centre, 2 to 4 bars to showcase your killer move(s) and then begin your awesome exit!When the big bands slowed things down, the dancers reacted accordingly, and used their Ballroom dance skills to create a style called ‘Ballroomin’. According to livinghistorydance.com, Ballroomin’ Blues was ‘characterised by traveling (across the dancefloor)...(doing) large moves and fancy turns’. Imagine dancing a fast Charleston to a slow piece of music… Doesn’t quite work, does it? Ballroomin’ suited slow jazz, and is still alive and well at Swing and Traditional Blues events when the bands play slower numbers.

These days the term ‘Swing Dancing’ tends to be an umbrella term for dances done to swing music. However, back in the 1930s, Swing was actually a form of dance that teenagers on the west coast did. They did the Charleston steps they knew but added syncopation and flexibility to match the more ‘swung’ rhythms as increasingly played by the dance bands. It developed at the same time in history to practically the same soundtrack, but was distinct from Lindy Hop that we featured last month. 

The adult Bal dancers tended to keep together in a closer, chest to chest connection - not least because the crowded ballrooms effectively restricted dancers to on the spot shuffle steps. The Balboa Rendezvous Ballroom packed in 5000 dancers! 

Courtesy of balboarendezvous.com

Dancers would get dressed in their finest suits and dresses - the ladies showing off shapely calves with fancy frocks and high heels. Dance-off style cash prize competitions sprang up across the entire LA & Orange County areas. In addition to the dances mentioned so far, Collegiate Shag would also make appearances during this decade. 

As the 1930s drew to a close, economic woes were being compounded by the impending world war. The sumptuous outfits and excesses of the Jazz Age would go out of favour and it would soon be time to ‘make do and mend’.

Next month: The 1940s


Velody uses her extensive knowledge about dance to help you maximise your comfort and fun on the dancefloor. Find out more and listen to her swingin’ album at www.velody.co.uk

Part Three: The Roaring Twenties

This is part three of a series of articles charting highlights of partner dancing in the twentieth century. It was originally commissioned and published by Vintage Life Magazine, December 2015* with a new article following each month for each subsequent decade.

Flapper image thanks to ecaillou-bordeaux.com

The roaring of engines and bandstands, the raising of hemlines and haircuts: the 1920s had arrived! 

Think of dance in the 1920s and I’ll wager it won’t be long before you picture ‘The Charleston’. Charleston came into it’s own during this decade and to this day is hugely popular with party planners and party goers alike!

Want to try it? Stand tall with your feet shoulder width apart. Swing or kick your right leg forward, but don’t step down, rather swing it back to step back onto it. Then swing or kick your left leg behind you, then swing it forward and step onto it. If you do this at 2 beats per kick, it should take you 8 beats to get back to the start. Add your arms in front of you, moving side to side like windscreen wipers and you’ll look like a 1920s Flapper or Dapper Gent in no time!

By the end of January 1920, Prohibition - outlawing the sale of alcohol in the USA - had been in force for a year. Bitter territorial disputes between gangs making and distributing illicit alcohol continued. Both rich and poor alike looked for live music, dance and merriment. The age of the ‘Speakeasy’ was underway. Lavish ‘password protected’ nightclubs started in secret locations across the larger cities. The less affluent threw ‘rent parties’ where a modest entry fee allowed access to music and space for dancing and the ‘host’ could then pay their rent.

The Iconic Savoy Ballroom opened on March 12th 1926 in Harlem. Spanning an entire block from 140th to 141st Street on Lenox Avenue, it became synonymous with big band swing music and amazing nights of dancing. One of the first racially-integrated public places in the USA, The Savoy was billed as the "World's finest ballroom,". It’s said that as many as 700,000 guests visited every year. Downtown visitors were met by hostesses who would teach them dance steps. The going rate was ‘a dime a dance’.  It’s elongated dancefloor was dubbed  "The Track" and became home to many a ‘dance-off!'

Thanks to Jazz Lives blog

As the post-Ragtime pop music starts to really swing, it merits a new form of movement, and the Swing era begins. The most famous of all the Swing dances is Lindy Hop, purportedly named after Charles Lindbergh's solo flight or ‘hop’ across the Atlantic in 1927. You can find the most famous clip of Lindy if you look up ‘Hellzapoppin’ online. The jaw dropping lifts and aerials in the film’s dance scene were performed by ‘Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers’, a troupe of young and talented dancers managed by Herbert White (aka Whitey). Lindy Hop continues to thrive to this day thanks to the dedication of dancers such as Frankie Manning & Norma Miller. More on their huge contribution next month! It was also boosted more recently in a continual and consistent revival nudged along by films like ‘Swing Kids’, The 1998 'Khaki Swing' Gap advert and of course Strictly....

Last month we featured dance crazes of the 1910s, some of which endured such as The ‘Camel Walk’, and those that enjoyed a less popular fate, such as ‘The Grizzly Bear’ . The 1920s saw it’s own succession of dance fads, and it's generally agreed that the environment at The Savoy led the way for many of them. Given the stunning live music on offer, the dancers couldn’t help but be inspired. Many of the dances we have already covered before saw variations and fusions of existing dances.

Digital scan of the floor plan of the Savoy Ballroom from the New York Public Library Digital Collection

Looking out across "The Track" you would have seen The Peabody, The Waltz, One Step, Two Step, Tango, Rhumba and Ballroomin’ Blues (more on that next month). Solo dancers would do Soft Shoe Shuffle, Tap, Solo Blues (typically to the slower jazz) and what we now refer to as ‘Jazz Steps’ (typically to the more uptempo numbers). These are rhythmic, whole-body solo movements; sometimes simple, sometimes complex.

On the west coast in the crowded Ballrooms of San Francisco and Bay Area, the dancers enjoyed much less space, and so created a dance that was much more economical: Balboa. Named after the peninsula, dancers were occasionally fined if they strayed too far apart! We will delve further into Balboa next month as we go forward into the 1930s.

When planning your next 1920s theme party take time to watch ‘The Aviator’, ‘Gatsby’ or ‘Downton Abbey’ to soak up the fashions and hairstyles. Play some ‘Pee Wee Hunt’ or ‘George Gershwin’ whilst you research vintage cocktails and practice your Charleston. Time taken to look up Art Deco design will not disappoint!

Thanks to New York Film Academy

Better still, get up on your Happy Feet and take a local Lindy hop or Charleston class yourself and wow your friends and family with some stylish new moves!

Velody helps you maximise your comfort and fun on the dance floor.
She curates many vintage dance events, including the Cotton City Blues festival:

*This article was originally printed in Vintage Life Magazine, December 2015. Most previous editions are now SOLD OUT so subscribe to this blog to get more dancing through the decades straight to your inbox!