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

Introducing... The original speed dating!

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

Let's catch up with part one: leading up to and including the 1900s...

It would be impossible to do justice to the entire history of worldwide partnered dance in a single article, clearly! I have chosen European 'society' dances and American vernacular jazz dances. These eventually lead to rock n roll, jive and what many now know as 'swing dancing'; my area of expertise. There is still SO much to cover, so let's get stuck in!

Dances served - and still serve - a very important purpose in our communities. They provide a welcoming environment for people to meet, mingle and let off steam. During social dances throughout the ages there was sometimes close, if brief, contact with the opposite sex, and in 'proper’ society circles - til perhaps even World War Two - this was one of the few places one could (with some measure of freedom) interact with those outside ones direct family or household. We might call partner dancing the original 'speed dating'!

Thank you to www.americanethnography.com

In Patsy Holden's article ‘Civilised Dancing’ for americanenthnology.com, she notes that: “Dances went from being imported to America from Europe to the other way around during the early 1900's”. Many Christians were none too happy that women and men were connecting in this way and much action was taken to discourage partner dancing. In particular by ‘none so pure as the purified’ Thomas A Faulkner: previously Proprietor of the Los Angeles Dancing Academy and ex-President of Dancing Masters’ Association of the Pacific Coast, who wrote From Ball-Room to Hell in 1892.

By Anonymous -
http://community.livejournal.com/retro_ladies/190520.html,
Public Domain,

In the nineteenth century, a tradition of 'prizewalks' began in the deep south. Plantation slaves would enjoy brief respite by dressing up and dancing. Accounts vary but it is understood that the walks involved parodies of plantation owners and some Charleston moves still echo this playful spirit. Not quite the grandeur of trophies and competitions such as ‘Strictly’ today, but nonetheless coveted titles in their day. Dance prizes became cakes and the name ‘Cakewalk’ - strutting one’s stuff for a prize - came into more popular use.

The banjo was the most likely instrument to be seen on the plantations and enjoy continued popularity well into the twentieth century, though it was eventually eclipsed by the guitar. The European country dances would be accompanied by fiddle and bodhran (drum) at Ceilidhs. Waltzes were often written for piano and then played by string quartets at dances, with little or no percussive or ‘rhythm’ section added. Composers such as Franz Schubert composed many waltzes intended for purely social dancers - rather than virtuoso musical performances.

The new century is beginning and the Tower Ballroom has recently opened in Blackpool, England. Jazz and blues music continue to make their way across the USA via the musicians travelling from creative hubs like New Orleans and Memphis. Innovation in partner dance is underway whether it be in waltz, blues or what are to become known later as 'swing' dances. Tango hasn’t been exported from Argentina quite yet, but is gaining in momentum during this first decade of the twentieth century.

We might these days think of waltz as 'straight laced', given it has exact requirements regarding alignment, the placing of one's feet and the focus upon 'correctness'. Watch an episode of 'Strictly' and listen to the judges' critique of Viennese waltz and you will see what I mean! It has however, enjoyed sustained popularity for centuries, this author has her fingers crossed for the same happening with the swing styles!

"Vien Walz"--circa 1820s Hungarian print of salon waltzing
photographed withowner's permission near the office door
 of the 300-year old Piaristenkellar 

Viennese waltz and scottische are early examples of dances where a single lead and follow couple remained together throughout the dance. The ‘lead’ chose the steps with which to progress in the accepted direction of travel around the floor. Though the couples had begun to ‘social dance’ to their own choice of moves, they would still - and still do at ballroom dancing events - progress around the dance floor in a particular direction at once.
Any ‘overtaking’ other couples should be executed with finesse!

By 1900s we know that 'slow drag' was being danced to the emerging blues music in Memphis and other musical cities. To picture slow drag, imagine alternating your weight from your left to your right foot, and back, feet hip width apart. Now take slightly larger steps side to side and as you step, allow your free foot to 'slow(ly) drag' across the floor towards the foot you've stepped onto (repeat at will). If you then stand with a partner, connect via holding hands and mirror each other, we now having the beginnings of one style of (partner) blues dance as it's known and still danced today.

Courtesy of www.storyvilledistrictnola.com

W. C. Handy wrote some of the first published blues songs, and as we progress to the 1910s and beyond, we will suggest who to listen to to evoke the mood of the decades as we examine them in turn. Blues and Jazz will consistently gain in momentum and popularity for decades to come.

This image shows the Buddy Bolden Band in 1905


In England, James Finnigan (first President of the Manchester and Salford Association of Teachers of Dancing, founded in 1903) is credited with devising the military two step. You can view contemporary clips of dancers emulating military balls from many eras, (19)00s included, online. There you will see varying levels of authenticity in wardrobe options. Gentlemen were most often seen in tail coats at dances and it is pre World War One so fabric for women’s dresses isn’t restricted as yet. Surveying the dance floor you would have seen dresses with modest necklines, lamb chop sleeves, full length gloves, and, of course, full skirts to the floor (absolutely no ankles on show!)

As the century establishes itself, mass migration for better opportunities continues and cross pollination in both music and dance is one of the many wonderful results of this. Those of us enjoying jive, swing or ballroom today owe a great debt to the incorporation of African movement into the ballroom dances across turn of the century America. Swing and blues dance have enchanted me for 8 years, and I look forward to showing you why in the coming posts!


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, October 2015. Most previous editions are now SOLD OUT so subscribe to this blog to get more dancing through the decades straight to your inbox!