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Even the brightest ballroom dance floors have dark corners.
Consider, if you will, the secrets which surround the birth of the foxtrot. Although television programs like “Dancing With the Stars” have helped make it cool again, few today realize how many questions swirl about this most iconic of American ballroom dances. For instance:
Who invented it? Was it the charismatic husband-and-wife team who (with the help of an openly lesbian manager and a black orchestra leader) chasséd from impoverished showbiz wannabes to world-famous superstars? Or was it the hapless vaudeville performer who quick-stepped into the limelight briefly, then promenaded into obscurity?
Why was it called the foxtrot? Did it gets its name as a result of having emerged from a veritable dance-floor menagerie? Or did it immortalize its otherwise forgotten inventor?
Was the foxtrot the descendant of white European dance traditions -- or was it forged in the turbulent cauldron of the blues?
When it comes to the foxtrot's lineage, dance historians have agreed to disagree.
Some say the foxtrot was invented by the celebrated Vern and Irene Castle. In 1911, living as itinerant actors in France, the attractive couple nearly starved to death. But upon being hired as “exhibition dancers” at a popular Parisian nightclub, the Castles became “la coqueluche de la ville,” and had soon re-crossed the Atlantic to headline a wildly popular cabaret act in Manhattan, wherein the blithe spouses demonstrated many of the popular “animal” dances then sweeping the nation.
With the advent of ragtime, America had come under the thrall of sexy new steps like the Turkey Trot, the Crab Step, the Chicken Scratch, the Grizzly Bear, the Possum Trot and the Kangaroo Dip — and as their star ascended, the Castles were happy to introduce new animals to the terpsichorean zoo. One such original dance, which the pair originally called the “Bunny Hug,” reportedly came to Vern Castle when he heard the duo's musical director, the great African-American bandleader (and future military hero) James Reese Europe, playing a half-time version of W.C. Handy's “Memphis Blues.” Shortly after inventing the Bunny Hug, the Castles renamed it the “Fox Trot.”
Alternately, some experts say the foxtrot was invented by a good-looking vaudeville performer named Harry Fox. In the summer of 1914, the New York Theatre, a famed vaudeville palace being converted into a motion picture hall, hired Fox (who had changed his name from Arthur Carringford) to dance between films. Fox's most popular routine was an adaptation of the two-step, a German dance which dated back to the late 19th century. This signature dance soon became known as “Fox's Trot,” which itself was soon abbreviated to the “foxtrot.” The dance made a star of Fox, but only briefly; by the 1930s, the once well-known dancer was taking small, uncredited roles in films like “Fifty Million Frenchmen” and “The Case of the Stuttering Bishop.”
Whether invented by the Castles or Fox, the foxtrot continues to thrive nearly a hundred years after its first gambol across the floor... making it a great American original, no matter what its parentage.
Notes is supported by the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado, partnering with the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado to promote the values of mutual respect, religious diversity, inclusiveness, compassion, and justice.
Craven Lovelace produces Notes, a daily cultural history of popular music, for KAFM 88.1 Community Radio, kafmradio.org. You can visit cravenlovelace.com for more of his musings on the world of popular culture.
Consider, if you will, the secrets which surround the birth of the foxtrot. Although television programs like “Dancing With the Stars” have helped make it cool again, few today realize how many questions swirl about this most iconic of American ballroom dances. For instance:
Who invented it? Was it the charismatic husband-and-wife team who (with the help of an openly lesbian manager and a black orchestra leader) chasséd from impoverished showbiz wannabes to world-famous superstars? Or was it the hapless vaudeville performer who quick-stepped into the limelight briefly, then promenaded into obscurity?
Why was it called the foxtrot? Did it gets its name as a result of having emerged from a veritable dance-floor menagerie? Or did it immortalize its otherwise forgotten inventor?
Was the foxtrot the descendant of white European dance traditions -- or was it forged in the turbulent cauldron of the blues?
When it comes to the foxtrot's lineage, dance historians have agreed to disagree.
Some say the foxtrot was invented by the celebrated Vern and Irene Castle. In 1911, living as itinerant actors in France, the attractive couple nearly starved to death. But upon being hired as “exhibition dancers” at a popular Parisian nightclub, the Castles became “la coqueluche de la ville,” and had soon re-crossed the Atlantic to headline a wildly popular cabaret act in Manhattan, wherein the blithe spouses demonstrated many of the popular “animal” dances then sweeping the nation.
With the advent of ragtime, America had come under the thrall of sexy new steps like the Turkey Trot, the Crab Step, the Chicken Scratch, the Grizzly Bear, the Possum Trot and the Kangaroo Dip — and as their star ascended, the Castles were happy to introduce new animals to the terpsichorean zoo. One such original dance, which the pair originally called the “Bunny Hug,” reportedly came to Vern Castle when he heard the duo's musical director, the great African-American bandleader (and future military hero) James Reese Europe, playing a half-time version of W.C. Handy's “Memphis Blues.” Shortly after inventing the Bunny Hug, the Castles renamed it the “Fox Trot.”
Alternately, some experts say the foxtrot was invented by a good-looking vaudeville performer named Harry Fox. In the summer of 1914, the New York Theatre, a famed vaudeville palace being converted into a motion picture hall, hired Fox (who had changed his name from Arthur Carringford) to dance between films. Fox's most popular routine was an adaptation of the two-step, a German dance which dated back to the late 19th century. This signature dance soon became known as “Fox's Trot,” which itself was soon abbreviated to the “foxtrot.” The dance made a star of Fox, but only briefly; by the 1930s, the once well-known dancer was taking small, uncredited roles in films like “Fifty Million Frenchmen” and “The Case of the Stuttering Bishop.”
Whether invented by the Castles or Fox, the foxtrot continues to thrive nearly a hundred years after its first gambol across the floor... making it a great American original, no matter what its parentage.
Notes is supported by the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado, partnering with the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado to promote the values of mutual respect, religious diversity, inclusiveness, compassion, and justice.
Craven Lovelace produces Notes, a daily cultural history of popular music, for KAFM 88.1 Community Radio, kafmradio.org. You can visit cravenlovelace.com for more of his musings on the world of popular culture.
