Capering & Kickery

The Mid-Twentieth-Century Virginia Reel

"The chief trouble, as I said, with the Virginia Reel is the monotonous repetition and waiting for your turn on the corners. This can be obviated by a new form of the dance which is gradually growing in favor. In this form, instead of having corners bow, turn, etc., each gentleman, and all at once, crosses directly over and does all the moves with his own partner. Done carelessly, this leads to wild confusion (but fun). However, if the line of men all advance as a straight line, the ladies the same, and all return to places in straight lines it can be very effective. And everyone is active all the time up to the point when the head couple reels the set."
        -- Lloyd Shaw, in Cowboy Dances: A Collection of Western Square Dances (1939)

It's unclear among whom, exactly, this version was "gradually growing in favor", since one page earlier Shaw had also noted that he had "never seen it with the country folk.  It has strangely survived in schools and in society groups..."  Shaw's mention is the earliest reference I have to this "all-active" (for the opening figures, anyway) version of the Virginia Reel.  The earliest descriptions I have are from somewhat later, though I wouldn't want to make any promises about these being the earliest; my collection of mid-twentieth century dance books is fairly thin.  But by the 1950s, this style of dancing the Virginia Reel seems to have become well-established. 

Digging It

I keep coming across what I can only call weird little 1950s novelty dances that were supposedly enormously popular among teenagers of the time.  In the case of The Dig, I can't quite see it, myself, or even imagine it as a less-jaded teenager...but then I remember that the Bunny Hop was a genuine teenage fad during the same era, so anything is possible.  The Dig was at least briefly regionally popular, appearing on Oklahoma Bandstand, the local version of the televised dance program, American Bandstand.

As described in the November 1958 issue of Dance Magazine by columnist Dorothea Duryea Ohl (daughter of the famous Oscar Duryea), The Dig was not a spontanous dance-floor innovation like its contemporary, the hand jive.  It was choreographed by Oklahoma City dance instructor Jimmie Crowell:

The owner of a recording company wanted a dance for teen-agers to fit an as-yet-untitled number.  He liked Jimmie's brainchild so much that he gave the same title to the record: The Dig, now on Chess label, Ken Kash Kwintet, No. 1699 (Flip side: Vicious Vodka)

Crowell died only a few years ago, after a long career as a dance instructor.  Other than that Chess single, I can find no trace of the Ken Kash Kwintet.  I suspect that they were an in-house group of Chess musicians pulled together for this recording.

Hand Jive Style: Clapping it out

A quick postscript to last week's post about the hand jive performed on the Johnny Otis Show in the late 1950s:

Towards the end of the song, there are three clapping sequences that can be used for an extremely low-key hand jive.  These can be seen in the video embedded in the earlier post.  Here are descriptions of each:

(1) Johnny himself!  At one point he stops playing the piano and simply sits there clapping to the music, accenting the even beats:

one CLAP three CLAP five CLAP seven CLAP

He briefly transitions to a finger-snap instead of a clap, keeping the same rhythm.

(2) One of the McKinley sisters (sadly, I don't know which is which, but the one at the back), gets a slightly more complex rhythm going on beat 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7:

CLAP two CLAP CLAP five CLAP CLAP eight

(3) The other McKinley sister and leader Marie Adams have an even more interesting beat going, with pairs of fast claps on "2&" and "6&" in a 1-2&3-4-5-6&7-8 count:

one CLAPCLAP three CLAP five CLAPCLAP seven CLAP

This one can be a little bit tricky to get.  It matches the first four beats of the music very well but there's a slightly different syncopation on the second four beats, so it feels odd at first until one gets used to clapping with a different accent.

The second and third sequences are done simultaneously on the show to very nice effect.  It would be interesting to split a group in thirds and have all three going at once.

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Previous hand jive posts:
Hand Jive Basics (includes the Grease sequence)
Hand Jive Style: Three Tons of Joy (includes the video from which these clapping sequences were taken)

Hand Jive Style: Three Tons of Joy

I described a basic hand jive sequence, as shown in the popular 1978 movie-musical, Grease, a while back, but it's not the only version.  I heard the sad news of "Willie and the Hand Jive" artist Johnny Otis' death today, so in his memory, let's look at the hand jive variations demonstrated on his show in the late 1950s by Three Tons of Joy, a trio featuring R&B singer Marie Adams with sisters Sadie and Francine McKinley.  Here's the video clip of the show from which I've taken the sequences described below:

Hand Jive Basics

I have a great nostalgic love for the 1978 movie-musical Grease, and particularly for the big "Born to Hand Jive" scene at the school dance. I usually avoid analyzing my favorite movies from a dance historian's perspective -- it can be painful -- but I couldn't resist looking into the hand jive. I found a few surprises in my research, but for this post I'll just stick to the basics, with more background to follow in the future.

Rock 'n' Cha

Ever so often I come across the oddest little novelties.  The Rock'n'Cha is a conga-line type dance which was discussed in the January, 1958 issue of Dance Magazine.  The cha-cha was first introduced in the 1950s, and it seems to have spawned some weird group variants (Cha-Cha Choo-Choo Caboose, anyone?)  The notes for this dance were sent to the magazine by Chicago resident Louise Ege, who attributed them to Grace Hansen, Dance Coordinator and Professional Consultant for the Chicago YMCA and head of the ballroom committee of the Chicago National Associate of Dance Masters.  Mrs. Ege claimed that Chicago teens loved the dance, with it even having "replaced the Bunny Hop in their affections."  I'm not sure what this says about either the taste of Chicago teens in early 1958 or the accuracy of Mrs. Ege's observations of contemporary teen culture.

The formation is a single line, hand on shoulder of the person in front.  Everyone starts on the same foot and does the same moves.  There are three sections to the dance: the Rock, the Penguin (!), and the Break-Away Turn, danced in a sequence of Rock-Rock-Penguin-Turn.  The names of the Rock and Turn sequences are self-explanatory.  The Penguin refers to the movement of that section being "like a penguin, jiggling and teetering from side to side."  I usually find it best not to think too hard about this sort of simile in a dance choreography.