Blues dance

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Blues Dance is a modern term used to describe the genre of inter-related dances that developed alongside of Blues music or contemporary dances that were spawned in the tradition of the original dances.

Like Blues music, Blues dancing finds its origins in African rhythm and movement¹. Genre emerged from the dances of West Africa blending with European folk dances. 19th century dance steps like the Strut which became the basis of the Cake walk are good examples².

Early Blues dances were very simple and allowed for a wide variety musical interpretation while still staying true to the Black Aesthetic. They were often a simple one-step or two-step and never became a focus for White America the way that dances like Lindy Hop and Charleston did. As a result, Blues dance had retained the authenticity from its early days³.

Because the spectrum of Blues music is so large, there are many different forms, interpretations, and styles of traditional Blues dance. "The Gut-Bucket," "The Fish Tail," "Struttin'" and "The Slow Drag" are only a few of the dances that history passes down with this wide variety of music.

Some people have the impression that a Blues dance must be slow, sensual, and intense. However, anyone who has listened to a fair amount of Blues music will have heard songs that are lonely, longing, sad, angry, and joyful, as well as songs that are loving, lustful, and bawdy, ranging in tempo. Blues music is about common experiences. It is a sharing of human conditions that everyone can access on some level, and a Blues dance can include the entire spectrum of human emotions⁴.

With the resurgence of the Lindy Hop in the 90's, there was a renewed interest in other dances from the same time period and culture. Blues music started being played during after-hours dances at Lindy Exchanges, which eventually led to migrations of dancers to Blues clubs and house parties that played a varying amounts of Blues and Blues rooted music. It was only natural that some of the more dedicated and historically minded dancers started to look at the dances that were originally done to this music.

The traditional Blues dances started to resurface, some were expanded, some were changed, and new dances were spawned in the same tradition. Alongside this trend of rediscovery and popularization a freestyle form of partner dancing slowly grew. Based on Lindy Hop principles, but mixed with elements of West Coast Swing, Foxtrot, Argentine Tango, and general club dancing, it grew rapidly in popularity due to its low learning curve and lack of moves or basic step. In this way it shares a lot of similarity to dances like Modern Jive. This style of slow dancing does not bear most of the Africanist elements that define Blues dances and therefor does not qualify from an academic, historical, or cultural stand point as Blues dancing⁵, though it is an interesting and intriguing interpretation of emotionally intense music, where the melody and harmonies are given precedence over rhythms.

[edit] Citations

¹ Black Dance: From 1619 to Today by Lynne Fauley Emery
² Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance by Marshall Winslow Stearns
³ Jookin': The Rise of Social Dance Formations in African-American Culture by Katrina Hazzard-Gordon
⁴ All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues by Vladimir Bogdanov
⁵ Collected works of Brenda Dixon Gottschild