Essay On Animal Dance

The 1990’s was a period of growth for the United States. Music and dance evolved significantly. Music and dance evolved throughout the decades by the inventions of new musical instruments, new dance genres, and new social dance crazes.

The music and dance movement started in the 1910s with Ragtime music, improvisational melodies with syncopated beats, from African American traditions. Both music and dance reflected the vibrancy of modern, urban influences. The music is typified by Scott Joplin’s rags and made popular to the middle class by “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” published in 1911. Animal dances quickly became the new dance craze of the 1910’s. Animal dances were dances influenced by the movement of certain animals. There were endless varieties of animal dance fads, such as: Fox Trot, Horse Trot, Kangaroo Hop, Duck Waddle, Squirrel, Chicken Scratch, Turkey Trot, and Grizzly Bear. The Fox Trot, invented by Harry Fox, for example was a dance in which you trot like a horse. Initially regarded as outrageous, this animal dance later became known as a conservative basic for the 20th century ballroom dance.

During the 1920s the new dances The Black bottom and The Charleston were born. The Black bottom originated in New Orleans as a stamping, swaying “Negro” dance. Musical Producer George White saw the Black bottom performed in a Harlem nightclub. White bought the music and introduced it to white audiences in his “Scandals of 1926.” The dance was then popularized and modified for the ballroom. Scholars of African dance have traced the Charleston to Trinidad and West Africa. In the nineteenth century, black minstrel dancers danced the “patting Juba,” a routine of slapping the hands and the knees, thighs, and body in a rhythmic d...

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...y black roll 'n' rollers like Chuck Berry and Little Richard glorified sexuality.

In 1960, Elvis returned to the music scene from the US Army, joining the other white male vocalists at the top of the charts; Bobby Darin, Neil Sedaka, Jerry Lee Lewis, Paul Anka, Del Shannon and Frankie Avalon. America, however, was ready for a change. The Tamla Motown Record Company came on the scene, specializing in black rhythm and blues, aided in the emergence of Supremes, and Aretha Franklin, as well as some black men, including Smokey Robinson, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and the Temptations. The Beach Boys began recording music that appealed to high schoolers. The Beatles, from England, burst into popularity with innovative rock music that appealed to all ages. The Righteous Brothers were a popular white duo who used African American styling to create a distinctive sound.