The Block

Dance Tradltlon
and Mlnstrelsy
The European dance forms that dominated the musical stage of colonial
and federal America yielded to a less refined but more vigorous and
popular dancing wrought from the real and imagined heritage of the
Afro-American slave during the period of minstrelsy and thereafter. With
the first slave ships that deposited live African cargo on American shores
early in the seventeenth century came a potent dance force composed o[
the movement customs of many tribes forced together by the political
power of the white race into the social, cultural, and serviceable com-
modity that came to be known as slavery. During that shameful period,
a century before the concept became socially fashionable and politically
respectable, many were cast into the American melting pot, except that
our first unwilling immigrants represented the tribes of Africa bound for
servitude in a new land and not the various nationalities of Western
Europe that flocked to the New World in search of wealth, fame, and a
better life. On plantations and on the streets of New York, slave and city
blacks danced to the accompaniment o[ chants and drums, rivaling each
other in dances for pride or profit, and so begat a dance traditlon whose
elements are visible still on Broadway, film, and video.
The black dance that evolved in America as a means of racial survival
and later as a form of private and public entertainment derived from an
African heritage of movement as religious and emotional affirmation.
The African committed the body in motion to the gods and spirits of
the forest and plain. At festivals and ceremonies, at burials and coming-
of-age rituals, movements of the feet and hands and head and torso
together revealed the joy or grief of the moment. Far from the blur of
wild, wanton, and disorganized flailing about depicted in so many
terrible Hollywood movies, African dances embrace recognizable forms
t2
 THE BLACK DANCE TRADITION AND MINSTRELSY l3

Ihe chorocteristic use of movement in o circle con be seen in this Africon children's
torch donce, Niger, obout 1893. (Photo: Print ond Plcture Collection, Free Librory of
Philodelphlo)

that allow participants subtle variations in movement and expression.

Regional and tribal differences account for broad stylistic variations.
Scholars trace movement directed from the hips and pelvis to the tribes
of the Congo, predominant head and upper torso activity to the West
African coastal area of Dahomey, and vigorous footwork to the Pygmy
tribes of the African rain forests. Whatever the regional characterisrics,
all move to the beat of the drum. Specific dances might fearure one or
more couples engaged in a forward-and-backward shuffle surrounded by
a circle of singing, clapping parricipanrs. Generally, African dance
utilizes the entire body, with the pulsating torso as base and center for
movement and bodily extension. Usually the pelvis and hips stand out
as the source of movement, with hands and legs relegated to secondary
importance. An eyewitness account of early-eighteenth-century dances of
the Nigerian coast attests to characteristics that surface later in the black
t4 SHOW DANCING IN AMERICA

dances of U.S. and West Indian plantations. Those characteristics are:

(l) a recurrence of movement in a circle or dances in the round; (2) foot
movement, such as beating the feet on the ground as an extension of the
movement originated in the hip and pelvic area; and (3) frequent forward
projections of the pelvis that appear to suggest the rhythm and motion
of the sexual act.
Mainly, African dances moved on the beat as a natural response of
the entire body to the beat of the drum. Dances executed in unison aimed
for direct correlation between the accent of the drumbeat and the earth-
stomping beating of the feet, a compliance sometimes relieved by the
subtle variation of perfectly timed pauses also executed in unison. The
drumbeat followed the dancers into slavery as they stomped in their
shackles and danced in their chains on slave ships destined for the
plantations of the Old South. The dances of Africa didn't die in the
socially inhospitable climate of the New World but adapted to the needs
of the dancers to survive, please their owners, or entertain the landed
gentry at public plantation entertainments. Soon, popular musical en-
tertainments based on sentimental appraisals of plantation life from the
white viewpoint swept the nation, on their way to becoming the most
popular form o[ entertainment in the United States during the middle
decades of the nineteenth century. The form's most visible and successful
performers looked to the hybrid Afro-American dance tradition for
inspiration, steps, and the altogether indigenous qualities that set it
apart from the show dance derived from European models. On the
considerable journey from authentic African dance transplanted to the
American plantations of the antebellum South, to the metamorphosis of
black dance elements into tap, iazz, Broadway dancing, and disco,
American show dance paused at a critical juncture. They called it
minstrelsy.
American minstrelsy was a simple, unsophisticated form of song,
dance, and comedy entertainment that dominated the public entertain-
ment scene until the advent of vaudeville, burlesque, and extravaganza.
Its potency as show business derived from managerial commitment to
offer inexpensive, accessible shows housed in "elegantly appointed,"
conveniently located theaters. A February 29, 1880, Boston Sunday Globe
account of the opening of Hooley's Theatre catalogued the attraction of
a form of musical entertainment four dacades old and vigorous still:

The beautiful Novelty Theatre, whose earliest prospects were blighted by

bad management, now comes to the front again. This time it is under the
 THE BLACK DANCE TRADITION AND MINSTRELSY l5

direction of a man whose name inspires confidence and almost assures

success in advance-Uncle Dick Hooley. One of the oldest and most popular
of America's caterers to public amusement, Mr. Hooley is certain to main-
tain in Boston the reputation he has so honorably gained throughout the
country. A gem of a house is the theatre of which he assumes con-
trol-appointed elegantly in every way, and possessing peculiar advantages
as to location. Situated as it is at the corner of Dover and Washington streets,
it is very nearly in the centre of the city, close to the great South End district,
and within three minutes' walk of South Boston, with its population of
60,000. Arrangements have been made with the street-car and omnibus lines
for the convenience of patrons; and Hooley's Theatre may already be
counted a popular resort. As a home of refined minstrelsy the house will
fill a vacant place, and those who remember the palmy days of Morris
Brothers, Pell Trowbridge and Buckley's Serenaders, will be the first to
welcome the famous

EMERSON'S MEGATHERIAN MINSTRELS

who are to give the opening entertainment at Hooley's this coming week.
It is a strong company indeed, and just such a one as Manager Hooley might
be expected to offer. There is Billy Emerson, the very popular comedian,
and one of the most artistic song-and-dance men in the country. . . . The
prices of admission have been placed at very moderate figures-25, 35, 50 and
75 cents. Performances will be given each evening, and on Wednesday and
Saturday afternoons. Reserved seats are now ready.

The source of minstrel show material was the soil of the Old South.
The romantic image of plantation slaves with their comic antics, croon-
ing melodies, and shuffling dances provided the model upon which
performers, shows, and specialty acts patterned their material. Accom-
panied as they were by banjos, tambourines, and bone clappers, blackface
minstrel songs provided splendid aural incentive for lively dance. Within
the framework of the minstrel show's full evening of entertain-
ment-originated by the Virginia Minstrels in 1843 and perfected by the
Christy Minstrels, among others-dancers discovered the broadest possible
range of opportunities for exploiting the movemenr herirage of the black
slave. When transformed imaginatively for entertainment purposes, these
dancers brought about a demand for dance as a show's integral at-
traction, not merely its accompaniment. Contemporary accounts ac-
knowledge that it was the quality and notoriety of its dance appeal thar
assured the popular success of minstrel troupes like Charles White's
Kitchen Minstrels, generally regarded as the best of the kind on the Civil
16 SHOW DANCING IN AMERICA

War era minstrelsy circuit. At the height of their popularity, the Al. G.
Field Greater Minstrel Co. advertised a show enrirled when the Moon-
light Falls and the Water Ripples as a "mammorh Singing and Dancing
Divertisement," the "Greatest Minstrel Presentation of the Age." The
following advertisement is an example of those used to entice audiences,
and its makeup attests to rhe vital contribution dancers made ro the
internal workings of the show as well as the external need for advertise-
ment and publicity:

The scene is one of a tropical woodland in the evening. The moon steals
over a low range of the hill and its light shows a parry of white ladies and
gentlemen in a boat which is floating down the current of a river in the
distance. The darkies gather and indulge in their moonlight songs and
dances, the white folks replying to their melody. The scene is closed by the
darkies singing to the birds of the forest, and one of their number-a
yodler-follows the song of the mockingbird while his companions listen for
the echo to steal back through the forest. There is a quick change, and when
the lights go up it is noon on the lawn in front of a Southern home. The
darkies come in from the fields singing one of the old melodies and dance
their buck and wing steps. These dances never fail to make a hit, and the
harmony that lies within the soul of the darkies is developed and ex-
pressed in the rhythm of their feet. With the At. G. Field Greater Minstrels
this season is a corps of dancers who are as expert as any who can be found
in America.

Another A1. G. Field Grearer Minstrels production, enritled Roll On

Siluery Moon, promised an entertainmenl extravaganza to which danc-
ing would make a substantial contribution:

The moon is the subject of the big spectacular and musical extravaganza
presented by the Al. G. Field Greater Minstrels. Yon peeping moon sees rhe
old world at a time when human eyes are not as penetrating as at noon-day.
Sights and scenes familiar and strange are depicted in the mimetic stage
review that will excite the risibilities of a stoic. Life after dark is always an
interesting study. Nothing more beautiful and realistic in stage illustrations
was ever produced than this series of stirring scenes.
Interspersed with musical numbers embracing all the salient features of
comic opera, burlesque and musical comedy. Gorgeous costuming, brilliant
effects, the intricate dances originated by Doc Quigley for this dazzling,
dancing divertisement. The great variety of business, the character imper-
sonations, the enchanting vocal numbers are all of a character that imprints
on this big production the sramp of grearness. Yon peeping moon will bring
 THE BLACK DANCE TRADITION AND MINSTRELSY r7

to mind and memory many amusing incidents in life, long forgotten, and
introduce new thoughts that will make pleasant recollections hereafter.
The Poetry of Motion as exemplified by the Dexterous dancers who
comprise a round two dozen or more of the big company, the Al. G. Field
Minstrels, are under the limelight or the moonlight during a greater part of
the program. The spectacle, "Roll on, Silvery Moon," was expressly devised
to exploit the cleverness of the dancing contingent.
Among the many dancers are:

Doc Quigley Jack Sully

Bun Granville Tommy Odell
Frank Miller Louis Tracy
Joe Egan Fred Raycroft
Pat Hughes P. J. Scanlon
Shelvey Bros. Jules Hanlon
Thomas Callahan Will C. Long
Chas. Caldwell Henry Gibbons
Frank Tracy Meyer Sardell
Sylvester Reardon

The showmen who contributed most to the rise of American

minstrelsy recognized the importance of the dance component from the
start. When blackface performers first began to band rogerher in the
1840s to form minstrel show troupes, one of the most prominent talent
combinations was that of banjoist and dancer. Since the most successful
troupes toured extensively, their dancing received exposure in the British
Isles and elsewhere. Advance publicity promised the audience as much
dance as comedy and song. When Dan Emmett and the Virginia
Minstrels toured Scotland as "the first band of minstrels ever organized,"
the theater presented their show in conjunction with a comedy per-
formed by its own dramatic company. Through the medium of "songs,
dances, lectures, refrains, sayings and doings," the Virginia Minstrels
promised to portray "the oddities, pecularities, eccentricities, whim-
sicalities and comicalities of that sable genus of humanity." Included on
the program were dances "such as slaves dance on their holiday feasts
and in gathering-in the cotton and sugar crops, entitled 'Corn Husking
Jig and Marriage Festival Dance."' Broadsides assured the public that
"not a trace or shade of vulgarity is mixed in . . ." and that "there is
nothing that can offend in the least degree rhe most fastidious rasre."
The program for the following day's performance promised that a Mr.
R. W. Pelham of the Virginia Minstrels, rhe "neatest and best dancer
18 SHOW DANCING IN AMERICA

living," would appear in several of his new songs and dances. In

addition, Mr. Dan Emmett's celebrated banjo variations would accom-
pany Mr. Pelham ". . . who will show de science ob de heel to de music
ob de banjo, making a grand display ob de heel-and-toe caper-
bilities. . . when de right leg, de leff leg, de hind leg, and ole de odder
legs will be brought to bear on dat 'ticular 'casion." As the language
suggests, minstrel showmen built their comedy on stage caricatures of
American blacks, of whom the two principal examples were the shiftless,
uncouth clown and the "ludicrous" blackface personification of the
white dandy. Both characters adapted successfully to dance. After the
Civil War, when black minstrel troupes inherited the same duo, the dandy
strutted and the clown shuffled. Minstrel-show dance settled on a hybrid,
derivative style, based on Northern white idealized or comic interpreta-
tions of plantation life, whose animation, vigor, and robust theatricality
appeared to contemporary audiences to be more authentic, at least more
appropriate to a show's subject matter, than the songs, their lyrics, the
jokes, or the burlesque. Eventually, there arose a body of steps and dances
as well as a style; it would sustain a century of American show dance
through vaudeville, revue, nightclub acts, and early musical comedy. It is
during the minstrelsy era that we first encounter the names by which
steps and dances still evident in the modern repertory came to be known,
and the earliest descriptions of the dancers themselves, which rogether
constitute the earliest substantive historical record of show dance for the
American public.
Without a doubt, the most ubiquitous, functional, and creatively
subscribed minstrel dance was the walkaround, a promenade dance that
often concluded the first part of a show. Initially a soloist performed the
dance, but time and popularity saw it grow into an ensemble number
for a small group of dancers, the entire company, or both. Dan Emmett
wrote "Dixie" not as a Civil War anthem but as a walkaround for the
Bryant's Minstrels. The walkaround demands suitable music, usually a
lively tune in 2/4 time. The writers and performers of minstrelsy
conceived the walkaround as a finale to one part of the show, with the
often-exercised option to reprise for the finale of the entire production.
To the pronounced rhythm of march time, and with steps based on
variations of leg elevations with the body in layback position, an enrire
company could engulf the stage in a vigorous kinetic specracle that
would bring down the curtain and provoke rousing applause. The
format o[ the walkaround permitted the inclusion of challenge dances
designed to involve the audience in the spirit of the good-natured
 ,/
THE BLACK DANCE TRADITION AND MINSTRELSY I9

competition between dancers or groups o[ dancers on the stage. The

cakewalk evolved from just such a challenge-dance situation. In its
earliest form, the cakewalk was a contest among dancing couples who
attempted to outdo each other in the mock imitation of the white man's
manners and behavior. Popular consensus determined the best couple,
whose prize was a lavishly decorated cake. The practice originated the
expression "to take the cake," and the dance itself appended the name
"cakewalk." A contemporary pamphlet entitled Negro Minstrels: tokes,
Gags, Speeches offers the would-be minstrel some tips on packaging and
performing the cakewalk:

Cake walks have become such a popular craze during the last few years that
society everywhere are introducing them in their many social events, and
minstrel performances now seem incomplete without them. While it is a
difficult matter to explain everything connected with the many movements,
etc., in a cake walk, the author has used his best endeavors to make it plain
to the reader. In the first place, to successfully take part in a cake walk, each
participant should take great pains in your make-up. The most extreme and
flashy suits should be worn, including an endless variety of diamonds or
Rhine stones, for jewelry effects. The young lady or young man that takes
such part should wear bright colored dresses. Large hat and high heel
slippers and carry parasol or fan which will show off in excellent taste. The
gentleman partner should wear a Prince Albert coat made of red, blue, brown
or green satin, high silk hat of same material, checked trousers, patent leather
shoes with white gaiters, a cane with crooked handle, decorated with ribbons
of same colors as his lady's dress. Where more than one couple take part, try
and have your costumes, both ladies and gentlemen, different from one
another.
Start your walk by taking partner's hand, elevating it to about the height
of your head; step off somewhat in advance of lady, assuming a happy smile;
keep step with each time of the music, and be sure to step only on ball of
foot, letting the heel down gently as you touch the other foot to the floor.
After passing the audience once in that position let go of hands and continue
to walk alone, meeting again at front of audience with bow. Lady will then
take your arm and continue walk halfway round when she discovers her
shoe untied. You will then proceed with much grace and a bow. Kneeling,
place your handkerchief upon knee, and placing lady's foot thereon, proceed
to tie it, after which he will arise and accept a kiss which she will offer. The
most essential point in a cake walk is to always keep your face towards the
audience, not matter if walking directly away from them with your backs
turned.
Put in your walks as much different steps or figures as possible, such as
20 SHOW DANCING IN AMERICA

imitating an old colored man, a Hebrew, a German, etc., and always bear
in mind that the hands, arms and face have as much to do with your success
as the walking part. A graceful swing of the arms, or if carried out away
from the body, is always clever.

The dances of the specialty acrs rhar formed the second part of most
minstrel shows represented a miscellany of jigs, clogs, hornpipes, and
dances separately classified as fancy, comic, and grotesque. The San
Francisco Minstrels featured double clog exercises and a "grand corn
husking dance." The program for the second part of Huntley's Minstrels
announced an Ethiopian jig, a challenge dance, and a burlesque fancy
dance. Minstrel dancing may have borrowed style and substance from
the plantation, but much of its form and many of its steps came from
the theatrical use of clog dancing and the Irish jig. Clog dancing took
its name from the heavy shoes (usually with wooden soles) that dancers
wore to beat out the rhythms of the dance. A clog dance is a sounded
dance. Performance characteristics include an erect body posture and
passive facial expressions put to the service of stomping out an amazing
number of sounds per measure of music. On the other hand, the jig was
a fast, happy, and bouncing dance executed with erectposture to music
in triple time. Because the Afro-American step dances favored flat-footed
steps directed to the ground with bare feer, rhe minstrel dance hybrid
added the qualities of dragging, gliding, and shuffling to the older
percussive style of jig and clog. Minstrel dancing embraced influences
from the Old World and the New, with each innovative performer
adding the ideas, approaches, and techniques that guaranteed personal
success in a highly competitive field and assured the longevity of the
dancing itself. Like so much early show dance in America, minsrrelsy
glorified steps-not expression, virtuosity, movement, imagery, or
storytelling-but steps. The steps that embraced most of what was Afro-
American in the hybrid dance tradition o[ minstrelsy were called the
"essence of Old Virginia" and the buck-and-wing. The former was a
gliding step achieved by subtle heel-and-toe movemenr thar propelled
the dancer across the stage to music in slow tempo. The lowest reaches
of the feet held the secret to correct performance, not the position and
force generated by the legs, as in jigs and clogs. Less famous in their
time, but more visible in later manifestations o[ American show dance,
were the steps collectively referred ro as the buck-and-wing. Although
explanations vary widely, there is good reason to believe thar the buck
step was originally a vain and extroverted strut built on the contrasting
 THE BLACK DANCE TRADITION AND MINSTRELSY 2I

impulses of swaggering gait and relaxation, while the wing was a

horizontally executed air step descended from the "pigeon wing" of the
plantation-a dance described by a contemporary source in images relat-
ing the practice of clipping pigeons' wings to the dancer flapping arms
and legs to the side, much as the unfortunate bird might do.
At the height of the form's popularity, all major minstrel rroupes
featured one or more dance specialists who were advertised in superla-
tives despite their generally acknowledged lack of formal dance rraining.
When Huntley's Minstrels appeared at Sanford's Opera House in
Philadelphia, they paraded the virtues of Mert Sexron, "the Grearesr
Comic Dancer of the Present Era, whose Wonderful Eccentricities has
heralded his name throughout the country. . . ." The Morris Bros., Pell
and Trowbridge's Minstrels toured "13 Srar Performers" with top billing
accorded Dick Sliter, "the Champion Dancer" who performed "A Fancy
Hornpipe" and "A Champion Jig." In addition, management engaged
talented boy dancers for the sentimental, surefire effects children have
always been able to achieve on the professional stage. When the leading
troupe of its time, the George Christy's Minstrels, appeared ar New
York's Niblo's Saloon in 1859, it featured a Master Gus Howard, "pupil
of George Christy" and "the youngest Jig Dancer, Tambourinest and
Bone Player Living." Rumsey and Newcomb's Original Campbell
Minstrels presented "the Grotesque and Fancy Dancer Master Eddy (Late
of the Ronzani Ballet Troupe) who performed an Ethiopian Fling."
What could the San Francisco Minstrels do under the circumstances but
call the attention of the public to their "Champion Dancer of the World:
Master Jerry"?
When a reporter asked the old-time minstrel Hughey Dougherty
about his early decision to become a burnt-cork showman, he replied,

How did I get into the business? Well, I used to be a printer's devil, that's
how I started in life . . . but I got to dancing jigs and I thought more about
the jigs than I did about my work. . . . I kept up the jig dancing and learned
funny songs and everybody said I ought to go into the minstrel business. . . .

Nevertheless, minstrelsy rewarded its best dancers with major careers on

the American stage, first in minstrelsy itself and later in the minstrel acts
of vaudeville. Even the competition acknowledged that "the beautiful
dancer and elegant singer" Billy Emerson was "one of the most graceful
men on the stage." Ralph Keeler built a reputation on his "Lucy Long,"
a sand dance in the early shuffling style that later specialists would
99 SHOW DANCING IN AMERICA

develop into the soft shoe of vaudeville and musical comedy. Billy
Kersands achieved fame as the master of the "essence of Old Virginia,"
during which he so maneuvered his 200 pounds as to glide in airy
suspension across the floor. And the graceful, elegant George Primrose
danced the best soft shoe on the American stage for decades.
If virtuosic dancing can be said to secure the reputation of what is
danced, then no dancer did more for nineteenth-century show dance than
William Henry Lane, the legendary Master Juba. Born a free black in
Virginia around 1825, Master Juba's talent and prodigy so propelled him
to the forefront of American stage performers that by the time he reached
twenty, the most discriminating critics and peers acknowledged him as
"the very greatest of dancers." In fact, his fame and theatrical prestige
were so considerable that in 1845 he toured pre-Civil War America with
four white minstrels and received top billing. Master Juba wasn't a
specialist so much as a multitalented theatrical personality-like so many
of the best "gypsies" on the modern Broadway stage. His audiences at
home and abroad recognized unanimously the gifts of a first-rate singer,
tambourine virtuoso, and "the best jig dancer of the era." Great dancers
are great at an early age, and Master Juba was a precocious phenomenon
even for his time. It was said that he danced as naturally as he breathed,
with the always artistically sound properties of effortless execution,
unsurpassed grace, and uncommon endurance. He was black, yet he felt
no obligation to offer the public the authentic dances of his Afro-
American heritage. His business was show business, and his commitment
was to the inherited conventions of stage performance that enveloped his
professional life. Since a contemporary critic compared his dancing to
the pluck and percussion sounds of banjo and bones, we can infer that
his appeal resembled that of later dancers in the tap dance tradition,
whose aural presence as a musical instrument distinguished their tech-
nique and the effects it achieved.
Although minstrelsy disappeared from the American scene, its dance
contributions are still carried on by dance studios, choreographers, and
popular performers. Just as the three separate acts of the minstrel-show
format evolved into vaudeville, revue, and burlesque, so too would
minstrel dance steps and styles continue in fanciful reincarnations on
the popular stage and in the social dance of the American public. The
Charleston craze of the 1920s incorporated the variation of the Juba
dance involving the crossing and uncrossing of the hands back and forth
across the knees. Bob Fosse's staging of. Pippin involved minstrelsy
motifs, particularly in the number "War Is a Science." When the famous
 THE BLACK DANCE TRADITION AND MINSTRELSY 23

minstrel dancer Eddie Leonard was asked whether his crossover from
minstrelsy to early musical comedy involved flying to a different branch
of the amusemenr tree or merely perching on a diJferent rwig requiring
comparable ability, he replied:

. . ' musical comedy technique is not so different from that of minstrelsy,

and . . . the dancing which will set to tapping the toes of a minstrel show
audience will also srart a syncopation wave among the musical comedy
crowd. The old time buck dancing and also the soft-ihoe steps which I
am
using. . . are remnants of the minstrels days of Billy Emerson and I have
lifted them bodily into musical comedy with very little change.

The show dance of the American stage absorbs its predecessors gently
and by degrees.