Before 1910, ballroom dances were usually held at private residences, at formal "by invitation only" state balls, or at country clubs or other social venues. Upon arriving, guests were given a "dance program" that consisted of the evening's dances in the order that they were to be played by the live musical group. A dance program usually looked something like this:
State Ball—Three quadrilles, three polkas, fifteen waltzes, and a final galop
Smart Private Dance—Sixteen waltzes and four two-steps
Country Ball—Fifteen waltzes, two lancers, and three two-steps
Dance Club—Sixteen waltzes and four one-steps
Of course these ballroom dances were attended by whites only, with the exception of black servants, and most of the dances were danced apart from each other or at arms-length. For over 100 years these types of dance programs were the main staple of any ballroom dance, and other than the new exciting music of Waltz composer Johann Strauss II during the late 1800's, nothing much changed as far as the ballroom dance scene in Europe and America. American dancers got most of their ideas and material from imported European dances. Needless to say, by the 1890's the ballroom scene was quite stale and ready for a change.
Underneath the many layers of multi-cultural American society, the African-American culture was developing quietly and quickly after the Civil War. African culture, with its own style of dance, slowly began to emerge with its own identity during the late 1800's, especially in the South. The intense concerns that white culture voiced about this new and different dance culture can easily be seen in late nineteenth century anti-black/dance/music literature. African-derived dance included hip and pelvis movements, stomping of the feet to replicate drums, shaking of the entire body, and other sorts of behaviors that were completely unfamiliar to white culture. Virtually all outlets for dancing were off-limits to blacks in many areas, especially outside of New Orleans, which simply propelled the popularity and effectiveness of the southern "juke-joint," the incubators of black music and dance that changed the world of ballroom dancing in the early decades of the 1900's. The juke-joints were places where black musicians and dancers could drink, enjoy their music, and congregate without being bothered by whites.
One of the first dances to cross over the line between blacks and whites was the "Cakewalk," a dance developed by blacks as a kind of satire and comedy act that mimicked the behaviors that whites displayed during their Minuets and Waltzes. In 1901, a former slave told the actor Leigh Whipper:
Us slaves watched white folks' parties where the guests danced a minuet and then paraded in a grand march, with the ladies and gentlemen going different ways and then meeting again, arm in arm, and marching down the center together. Then we'd do it too, but we used to mock 'em every step. Sometimes the white folks noticed it, but they seemed to like it; I guess they thought we couldn't dance any better (Malone 18).
The Cakewalk ended up on stage in the popular Vaudeville shows that traveled the country in the late 1800's. Smartly dressed couples paraded the stage, leaning back and stepping high to Ragtime tunes. Off-stage, Cakewalk competitions became popular amongst whites and blacks across America, and the idea of the prize being a highly decorated cake became the popular tradition. The couple who had the most creative dance moves and who looked the best on the floor won the cake, hence the phrase "take the cake." By 1900, the dance had become so popular that a black musical was produced called "Clorindy," which was also known as "The Origin of the Cakewalk" (1898).
While Paris had been the central locality for the development of the world's fine arts for centuries, and the place where unruly social dance crazes became refined artistic forms of acceptable social dance (such as the Tango), the new American vaudeville and musical performances gave Americans a say-so in what what was socially acceptable in the ballroom and what was not. The professional musical became a useful method in which un-tamed fad dances were developed into artistic forms of social dance. From this point forward, dances that made it to the stage of a professional production were deemed as socially acceptable, and America led the way to a new type of ballroom dancing. Dances went from being imported to American from Europe to the other way around during the early 1900's. Exhibition ballroom teams who were able to perform social fad dances using the mannerisms of the elite white society while also incorporating the rules of traditional ballet became the sweethearts of the ballrooms and easily found high-paying employment in theatres and cabarets, especially in New York City. From them we get the professional ballroom dance teacher of today.
Sources used:
Driver, Ian. A Century of Dance: A hundred years of musical movement, from Waltz to hip-hop. Octopus Publishing Group Limited, 2000.
Malone, Jacqui. Steppin' on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996.
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