Cabaret, as defined by the Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, is: 1) a shop selling wines or liquors, 2) a restaurant serving liquor and providing entertainment (as by singers or dancers), and 3) the show provided at a cabaret. Many people today use the word to refer to the 1972 musical directed by Bob Fosse and featuring Liza Minnelli, but the popular use of the word outside of the context of the musical hit has virtually ceased. However, in the first two decades of the twentieth century, the word cabaret was used to describe any place that offered food, drink, entertainment, and dancing; ballroom dancing to be specific. In fact, it is in the New York City cabarets of 1910 that the modern ballroom dance professional was born.
Previous to the 1900’s, ballroom dancing was limited, for the most part, to high-society events in private homes. Dances were stiff and rigid, and were danced mostly at arms-length from each other while executing traditional ballet-influenced, toe-turned-out foot movements. The new middle class, which began to develop around 1890 as a result of the trade, commerce, banking, and industrial prosperity that engulfed the city, found itself bumping shoulder-to-shoulder with the traditional families of inherited wealth such as the Astors and Vanderbilts. New luxurious hotels such as the Waldorf-Atoria used expensive cuisine and décor to attract both old and new money to their establishments. Nightlife in the Times Square also flourished between 1900 and 1910, the result of an abundance of new Broadway theatres and endless entertainment opportunities for the new middle class to spend their money.
The birth of Ragtime music in 1900 stimulated many wildly-created and often comical dance crazes across the country, and by 1906 the “rag-dancing” phenomenon was in full-force. The usual accented down beats of 1 and 3 were replaced with accents on 2 and 4, creating a “ragging” effect to any song desired. The influences of Ragtime on social dancers was dramatic and many untrained movements, often called “animal dances,” became regional or even national fads overnight much to the distress of moral and religious leaders.
Hotels, restaurant owners, and nightclubs put dance floors in their establishments and hired musicians to play live music. Patrons of both the “old money” and the new middle class flocked to these establishments to dance, drink, and enjoy life. George Rector, owner of the now-famous “Rector’s” at Broadway and Forty-sixth Street quoted “all they wanted to do was dance, as we accommodated them with a dance floor that measured thirty feet by twenty. The entire 1,500 all tried to dance on this postage stamp at the same time” (Malnig: 8). However, there were some social dancers who had previous ballet training or other type of accepted dance form of the time, or who were simply very talented and graceful in comparison to most untrained social dancers. Couples who became proficient and graceful in demonstrating the various social dance crazes were hired as “exhibition ballroom dance teams” (please click here for images) by local cabarets in order to attract paying customers around the thriving entertainment business district of New York City. In fact, the first form of dance entertainment at cabarets was exhibition ballroom dance teams. Exhibition ballroom dancers combined professional dance skills, such as traditional ballet, to the raw and awkward social “animal dance” while also adding elite mannerisms into their dance demonstrations.
Exhibition ballroom dance teams became virtually necessary for cabarets to survive and flourish amidst the demand for appropriate and moral dance techniques. Because the establishments were often filled with wealthy customers, it did not take long for the elite to embrace the new social dance styles (and pay for lessons). Dance teams performed a five-minute number every 20 minutes or so, and it was the creativity and talent of these first ballroom/social dance exhibition teams that ultimately cemented the aesthetic expectations of ballroom dancing. The purpose of these teams was to attract customers, to demonstrate the correct way to execute the popular social dance crazes, and, in most cases, to teach their new dances to an eager public of untrained dancers.
Initially, most “professionally-trained” (ballet) dance teachers scowled at the exhibition ballroom dance teams. However, because of the endorsement from high-society and the growing popularity of ballroom dancing, the profession of the modern ballroom dance teacher was soon recognized as legitimate. Many of New York City’s best exhibition ballroom dance teams became regular attendees at white and black tie events, and a talented team could easily make up to $700 per week performing at cabarets alone. This was in addition to the growing demand for dance lessons, as well as making over $1000 per week for those who performed on Broadway. (Most popular social dance forms ultimately end up in theatre productions, which made these teams in high demand.) The profession of the modern ballroom dance teacher began in the cabarets of New York City, and while the exclusivity and uniqueness of the profession has been somewhat damaged by the massive chain-studio movement and high-pressure sales tactics that have plagued the ballroom dance business for years, the social duties of a contemporary professional ballroom dance teacher remain almost identical to those of the 1910’s…to promote the newest dance craze, to demonstrate the proper way to execute each ballroom dance, and to teach the public how to enjoy dancing without looking stiff and ungraceful.
The success of the cabaret, and its influence on the evolution of ballroom dancing, ended in 1944 when a "Cabaret Tax" was levied against all dance establishments to help pay for World War II.
Source used:
1927
Rector, George. The Girl from Rector's. New York: Page and Doubleday, Page and Co., pg. 204.
1992
Malnig, Julie. Dancing Till Dawn: A Century of Ballroom Dance." New York University Press.
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