Charleston (dance)

The Charleston (also: 20s Charleston ) is an American dance company of the 20th century. It was named after the port city of Charleston, South Carolina. The music composed by the pianist and composer James P. Johnson jazz tune The Charleston in 1923 first performed in the Broadway musical Running Wild, helped the dance in the U.S. and in the world at large popularity. In Europe he was known in 1925 by Josephine Baker.

Although the dance was originally developed by African Americans, he was able to quickly establish a "white " ballroom dancing in the United States. He is closely associated with Flappern and speakeasy bars. There were dancing women, alone or together, in order to make fun of the alcohol prohibition in the U.S.. This meant that the dance in general was seen as provocative and immoral.

A dance description from 1925 leads to:

The Charleston is an extremely fast dance, at 50-75 cycles per minute, a little practice is already offered. A Viennese Waltz has up to 60, which is already fast. Ordinary dances move at 30-50 cycles per minute. The basis for this dance isolated movements. This means that you are able to individual body parts, such as arms and legs to move apart. Rowing with the poor and X / O combinations with the legs are typical of the Charleston. With the beginning of the world economic crisis of 1929, many could no longer afford the evenings, and the dance slowly disappeared.

The Lindy Hop, an important swing dance of the 1930s and 1940s, took over many elements of Charleston. A slightly modified form of the Charleston dance was danced in the 30s and 40s to swing jazz. She has many names, the most famous: