Cakewalk in the US - Term Paper Example

Introduction The term cakewalk is in itself historical just like the concept it represents. Cakewalk refers to the historical and traditional form ofmusic practiced by the African Americans. Actually, it is a form of music and dance that was popular among the slaves in the southern part of the US. Originally, this kind of dance and music was known as Chalk Line Walk dance and song. Chalk line Walk because it was being practiced by the slaves in the competitions they held in the plantations. Prizes were often awarded to the dance winners. Mostly, cake was the commonly awarded prize and hence the name changed from Chalk line walk to Cakewalk. This kind of song and dance competition took place among the slaves in the southern part of the US mainly before the emancipation but it is needless to say that even after emancipation the dance and song style did not die off. This paper seeks to explain the popularity of the cakewalk in the late nineteenth-century United States. Theories of Origins of Cakewalk in the US Most of the facts of cakewalk dance and song were not extensively documented as at 1981. However, there existed a myriad of accounts about the dance. Brooke Baldwin in his 1981 articles (in the Journal of Social History) the Cakewalk: a Study in Stereotype and Reality submitted a nearly complete compilation of the already existing accounts of the dance (Baldwin, 1981: pp203-212). The compilation was, to larger part, accounts of the eye witnesses of the dance. These eye witnesses were the ex-slaves who may have also took part in the dance. The accounts by the Virginia and Georgia ex-slaves had already been verified by the WPA researchers in the 1930s. Baldwin clearly notes in his article that after the 1930 WPA research, it became immensely difficult to hide the happier side of slavery (Baldwin, 1981: pp207). One of the respondent recalled how she used to sing the songs and cakewalk. She also added how cakewalk was indeed fun among the slaves during the slavery times. According to this specific respondent, the women wore long dresses which were often ruffled and the men wore not only high hats but split tailed coats. They sometimes used walking sticks during the dance. The dance was done in couples and the couple that danced the best would receive the prize. It is interesting to note that the white slave owners would attend the cakewalk dances and they enjoyed a lot watching the slaves dance. Actually, the slave owners decided the winning couple. This account was a first hand account from a former slave in Virginia. Besides the first hand accounts, Baldwin also compiled the second hand account about the cakewalk dance. A South Carolinian recalled one Griffin who used to fiddle for the white dances as well as the annual cakewalks among his folks (Baldwin, 1981: pp208). Shepard Edmonds, a former ragtime entertainer also narrated what his parents had told him about the dance. He said that the dance was initially a plantation dance. It was simply a movement to the banjo music just because they would not stand still as the music played on. It was done mostly on Sundays when there was little or nothing to be done in the plantations. The slaves would dress in their fine clothes; the young and the old alike. It is imperative to note that during the dance, the manners shown in the white master’s big house were shed, a fact easily missed out by the white masters who gathered to watch the dance. The masters were the ones who initiated the culture of prizes because they were able to give cake to the winning couple. According to Baldwin, the dance was basically aimed at satire. The slaves would satirize the supposedly superior white culture by showing the white masters watching that they too could dance and even better at that matter. Was this a risky practice? It was indeed a threat to the well being of the slaves if the white masters came to know but slaves practically and ideally dismissed the potential threat of the dance and considered it as a simple pleasurable performance among the slaves; a fact the white masters came to appreciate (Baldwin, 1981: pp211). With the Baldwin compilation, the theories of the origin and practice of the dance were never exhausted. Ethel L. Urlin wrote in 1912 about the dance in his book Dancing, Ancient and Modern. The book documents the dance which allegedly originated in Florida. The Negroes in Florida had borrowed the idea of the dance mainly from the war dances seen in the Indian Seminoles. It is for a fact that the Negroes were often present in these Indian Seminole war dances which mainly consisted of gyration and happy jumping which were alternated with slow processions by couples. The idea then was copied by the Negroes and practiced with the style of walking in the dance becoming an art (Urlin, 1912: pp13-19). Similarly, the Encyclopaedia of Social Dance added to Urlin’s writing showing the connection between the dance and the war dances practiced by the Indian Seminoles. The encyclopaedia documents further the classes that came up in the wake of the popular cakewalk dance. The classes among the Negroes were meant to teach fellow Negroes the proper way to promenade as far as the dance was concerned especially in the 1880s. During this time, Florida had become a winter resort and made the dance to graduate to performances. The dance together with the classes eventually spread to other states such as Georgia, Virginia, North and South Carolina and New York. By this time, the dance had started gaining popularity especially among the Negroes (Bulter, 1975: pp309-311). Popularity of the Cakewalk Dance in the Late 19th Century US The start of the 19th century saw a number of shows spring up. The shows were mainly involving acrobats, comedians, singers etc. Such shows were performed in various places ranging from tents, public halls and even at the bars but most striking was that the shows were attended by only men. The Minstrel Show was one example of such shows where both song and dance were the mainstream. The Minstrel Shows were arranged and performed by the whites and largely predominant black American’s culture parody. It is also imperative to note that there were other popular Minstrel Shows arranged and performed by the blacks. As the century wore on, there were a number of producers especially those from he North Eastern part of the US who found an idea for a variety show for the entire family as opposed to the Minstrel Shows which were predominantly if not entirely a male affair. This variety show lacked the common swear words, the rude humour and other elements such as sexual innuendos that were evident in the Minstrel Shows. They thus created the Vaudeville. However, parody and imitation of the black culture was allowed in Vaudeville. Blacks were only allowed to attend on specific days and the actors were predominantly whites. While this continued, the black actors and performers continued to run the minstrel shows. They also continued to run tent shows and halls albeit the halls were much smaller than the better paying Vaudeville halls. Albeit the black performers were not accorded much recognition as their white counterparts, they nevertheless moved on to propagate the black culture at the same pace as their white counterparts. The cakewalk dance showed its face and it ended up becoming the most popular social dance. Most of the performers were blacks and unlike all the other shows that the blacks performed, this dance show became markedly popular. There must have been a reason for this. As mentioned earlier, as the blacks continued running their less celebrated shows, they had one intention of carrying on the black culture to greater heights no matter what. The cakewalk dance gave them this opportunity to cavalcade their culture. As such the dance became popular because of the determination of the black performers to not only gain recognition like the ones accorded the white performers in Vaudeville but also be able to propagate the black culture through the cakewalk dance shows. Secondly, the popularity of the cakewalk dance is rooted in the fact that the dance was indeed a mixture of African European and American traditional culture and as such was looked at as an integration factor. It attracted most people from the three mentioned cultures and they enjoyed the dance shows because they felt they belonged. Further, the cakewalk dance shows lacked the parody that had initially become dominant in most shows. This made it grow fast and it was soon spreading through out the entire US. Originally, the cakewalk dance was a dance contest among slaves in the plantations. Most of the time the slaves would include movements that can be traced to the Irish jigs and reels to up their chances of pleasing the plantation owner and his family and as such win the prize (a cake). However still, originality had to be maintained in the effort to pleas e the judges in the cakewalk dance competition. As such, the dancers maintained the African movements which the white judges found not only exotic but also quite exciting. This dance therefore gained much popularity even before it had started to be taught in classes in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North and South Carolina and eventually in New York (Urlin, 1912: pp13-19). By the end of the 19th century, the cakewalk dance had become a real institution among the blacks in America. It was performed in almost every conceivable social gathering. The popularity grew a notch higher especially when the dance started to be accompanied by musicians playing the Ragtime and Dixieland kind of music (Bulter, 1975: pp309-311). Albeit a subtle commentary in the European and American communities, the attitude they accorded the dance and song would no longer be negative. It was a break from the traditional attitude they had accorded the African shows, dances and songs in performance. Eventually, the European started to mimic the cakewalk dance and this gave the dance and son g an even broader orientation. Both the blacks and European knew that indeed the cakewalk dance was appealing and they both were doing a newer and even popular version of the dance by the late 19th century. This continued right into the 20th century. By the 1920s there were basically a myriad of dances similar to the Cakewalk that had rocked popularity in the most popular US cities. All these dances had a borrowing from the African-American culture which had extensively been exemplified by the cakewalk dance and song. In conclusion, the cakewalk dance and song only started as a happier side of slavery in the early 19th century. It developed slowly to attract that attention and fancy of the white plantation and slave owners. As time went on the dance had rocked most US towns and states amazing all and sundry. It has already been explained why this dance became such popular especially during the late 19th century. Indeed the popularity over-lasted to get right into the middle of the 20th century except that by this time extensive modifications to the cakewalk dance had been done. Even today, it is still possible that most of the popular dances in the US have one or more movements borrowed from the cakewalk dance. References Baldwin, B. (1981). The Cakewalk: A study in stereotype and reality. Journal of Social History, 15 (2), 209. Urlin E L, (1912): Dancing, Ancient and Modern, New York: Appleton Publishers, pp13-19 Bulter J, (1975): Ballroom Dance Service, Encyclopaedia of Social Dance, New York, NY Publishers, pp309-311 Order#: 301307 DEADLINE: 8:00PM Topic: How would you explain the popularity of the cakewalk in the late nineteenth-century United States? Instructions: It would be great if the references provided could be contextualised historically. Brooke Baldwin "The cakewalk: a study in stereotype and reality" from Journal of Social History 15 Winter 1981, Orrin Clayton Suthern "Minstrelsy and Popular Culture" from Journal of Popular Culture 4 1971, Eric Sundquist "Charles Chestnutts Cakewalk" in "To Wake the Nations: Race in the Making of American Literature", Chapter 4 Deadline: 2009-05-18 8:00PM Style: - Language Style: English UK Grade: 2:1 Pages: 6 Sources: 1 Read More