The Swanky Entertainment called Dance

by Royce Le

            Along with the new addition to the jazz in American culture, there were evolutions of dances also that characterized the Modernist era. The new melodies were fast paced, thus the dances followed suit. The dances were a way for people to express themselves and release pent-up emotions and negative influences from the war, thus acted as a catalyst for making people feel better.

            Back in the 1920s, the older and more conservative generations were opposed to the Jazz era, but, the younger generations reveled in this era and the fast tempo music, thus the creation of intimacy in dances. In the early 1900s, the Tango and the Waltz were considered promiscuous since they involved physical touch between both partners, but, as jazz took off, the intimacy between partners became a social norm.

                                                                        To the left and right are images of the Lindy Hop, a dance named after the great Charles Lindbergh, also nicknamed Lucky Lindy for his skillful and lucky solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. His flight inspired the first dance to have aspects where dance partners are thrown into the air and where there are multiple jumping sequences.

            People looked at the new inspiring dances in movies, listened to steps through phonographs and radio records in order to practice the new dances before showcasing their moves in the clubs or dance floors. Dance became essential to every party and entertainment centers.  Dances were starting to be taught in schools and were used by churches in order to attract people to one another. Dances invented were Foxtrot, Square dance, and the most famous that epitomizes this era being the Charleston.

To the right is an image of the Charleston dance ad for a

Club. According to Comlumbia University Press, “The

Charleston is characterized by outward heel kicks

combined with an up and down movement achieved by

bending and straightening the knees in time to the music”.

 The steps are thought to have originated with the blacks

living on a small island near Charleston, S.C. Performed

 in Charleston as early as 1903.

            

             All-in-all, the dances were used to entertain, to express, and to help carve out the way many people lived during the Modernist Era. The impacts of the invention of these dances are the set foundation for couple dancing during today’s time and age. The dances have really transformed how youth express themselves for now arms, legs, and bodies were tossed in the air with the thought of reckless abandonment and a new ideology of optimism was set for new generations to come and live by.