Congo Square: the Sunday dances1740–1840 · Congo Square, New Orleans, LouisianaFrom the late 1740s the square was a Sunday meeting ground for the held people of New Orleans. A 1817 law allowed dancing there on Sundays; 500 to 600 people gathered for the bamboula, the congo and the flat-footed shuffle until the 1840s. Listed on the National Register in 1993.The Cultural Landscape Foundation, Congo Square; National Register of Historic Places (1993)
The ring shout1800 · Bolden (Briar Patch), McIntosh County, GeorgiaA counterclockwise circle where the feet never cross, a stick beaten on the wooden floor for the drum, a songster who sets the song and basers who answer. Shouted in Bolden after midnight every Watch Night since Emancipation. Alan Lomax and Zora Neale Hurston found the shouters in 1935.Art Rosenbaum, liner notes, McIntosh County Shouters, Smithsonian Folkways SFW40214, pp. 3-11
Master Juba (William Henry Lane), father of tap1840–1852 · Five Points, Manhattan, New YorkBorn about 1825 in Providence, died 1852 in London. Mixed our people's dance with jigs and clogging into new rhythms, and was the first of us billed over a white performer in a minstrel show. Scholars identify him as the dancer Dickens saw in a Five Points dance hall (American Notes, 1842).Britannica, Master Juba; Charles Dickens, American Notes (1842); Bedford + Bowery, 'The dance hall that charmed Dickens' (2019)
The cakewalk1850–1898 · Florida (approximate)Prize walks for a cake on Southern plantations before and after emancipation. Dancers wore hand-me-down finery and mocked the planters' minuets, and the planters judged it without knowing they were the joke (Baldwin, 1981). It has been suggested it began with Seminole dances in Florida (Urlin, 1912)Brooke Baldwin, 'The Cakewalk', Journal of Social History (1981); Ethel Urlin, Dancing Ancient and Modern (1912); Abbott & Seroff, Out of Sight (2002); Smithsonian NMAH
The second line1884 · Tremé, New Orleans, LouisianaNeighborhood parades of the Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, the benevolent societies our people built when insurers refused them, and the dance behind the band at jazz funerals. Scholars tie its strut to the Congo Square dances. The Young Men Olympian Junior Benevolent Association (1884) still paradeCelestan, Freedom's Dance (2018); Turner, Jazz Religion, the Second Line, and Black New Orleans (2009)
The Charleston1913–1927 · Charleston, South CarolinaNamed for Charleston. James P. Johnson said he first heard its beat from Charleston dockworkers; a version was called the 'Geechie dance.' Johnson saw it danced in 1913 in New York; his song 'The Charleston' in Runnin' Wild (Broadway, Oct 28, 1923) took it worldwide.Wikipedia, Charleston (dance), citing Malone (1996) p. 84 and Emery (1972) p. 227
The Lindy Hop1927 · Savoy Ballroom, Harlem, New YorkMade by our dancers in Harlem and named, by most accounts, by George 'Shorty' Snowden, renaming the Breakaway. The name was in print by June 8, 1927. The Savoy Ballroom was its home.Barry Popik, 'Lindy Hop' (citing San Mateo Times, June 8, 1927); Frankie Manning Foundation
D.C. hand dance1950 · Washington, D.C.Washington's own swing, built in the 1950s from the Lindy Hop and jitterbug, revived in the 1980s and named the official dance of the District in 1999.Kim L. Frazier, D.C. Hand Dance: Capitol City Swing (2000); Washington Post (Jan 1, 2011)
Locking1969 · Los Angeles, CaliforniaStarted by Don 'Campbellock' Campbell in the late 1960s when he couldn't do the funky chicken and froze mid-move: the first lock. His group The Lockers spread it in the early 1970s.Emmett G. Price, Hip Hop Culture (2006) p. 147; campbellock.dance
Crip Walk (C-Walk)1970 · Compton, CaliforniaFootwork dance made in the early 1970s by first-generation Crips in Compton and South Central Los Angeles, used at parties to show who you ride with. West Coast rappers named it the Crip Walk and carried it worldwide. Schools banned it (Los Angeles Times, June 4, 2002) and MTV refused videos with itWikipedia, Crip Walk; Erika Hayasaki, Los Angeles Times, June 4, 2002; Vanity Fair, Feb 14, 2022; Cwalk: It's a Way of Livin' (2003)
The party where the break was born (breaking)1973 · 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, Bronx, New YorkAugust 11, 1973: Cindy Campbell's back-to-school party. Her brother Clive (DJ Kool Herc) ran two copies of the same record to stretch the break, and the dancers who went off on the break became b-boys and b-girls. New York State named the building the birthplace of hip hop on July 5, 2007.New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (2007); Wikipedia, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue
Boogaloo and popping (Electric Boogaloos)1975 · Fresno, CaliforniaGrew out of the Oakland boogaloo. Boogaloo Sam's Electric Boogaloos in Fresno joined popping to boogaloo in the mid-1970s; 'The Fresno' routine came from the Oakland 'Slot.'Guzman-Sanchez, Underground Dance Masters (2012); Electric Boogaloos, 'The Birth of Popping and Boogaloo Style'
Voguing (the Harlem ballroom)1980 · Harlem, New YorkMade in the Harlem ballroom scene by Black and Latino gay and trans dancers. The common story credits Paris Dupree, striking Vogue magazine poses to the beat. Paris Is Burning (1990) showed it, and Madonna's 'Vogue' (1990) sold it.Wikipedia, Vogue (dance) (citing Baker 2011; Lawrence 2011); Paris Is Burning (1990)
The Harlem Shake (the real one)1981 · Rucker Park, Harlem, New YorkCreated in 1981 by Al B. (Albert Boyce) during breaks at the Entertainer's Basketball Classic at Rucker Park; first called 'The Albee.' G. Dep's 'Let's Get It' (2001) took it national. The 2013 internet meme by that name is not the Harlem Shake.Wikipedia, Harlem shake (dance)
The Gangsta Walk and jookin1985 · Memphis, TennesseeThe Gangsta Walk grew in Memphis clubs in the 1980s from the Bovan Walk, carried by DJ Spanish Fly's records at Club Expo and Club No Name, and grew out of New Orleans buck dancing through the buck jump. Jookin took shape in the early 1990s.Wikipedia, Memphis jookin (citing Red Bull Music Academy 2012; Routledge Companion to Literature of the U.S. South 2022)
Chicago footwork1987 · West Side, Chicago, IllinoisBorn at West Side house parties and dance battles in the mid-to-late 1980s, then the South Side: lightning feet below the knee, the upper body still. The music came after: RP Boo's 'Baby Come On' (1997), DJ Rashad, DJ Clent.Wikipedia, Footwork (genre)
Clowning (Tommy the Clown)1992 · Compton, CaliforniaThomas 'Tommy the Clown' Johnson started clowning in Compton in 1992: fast, high-energy dancing at kids' parties in clown paint, keeping young people off the street. Krump came out of his crews.Wikipedia, Krumping (citing Dance Magazine 2004; CBS News 2005); David LaChapelle, Rize (2005)
Krump2002 · South Central Los Angeles, CaliforniaMade in the early 2000s by Tight Eyez (Ceasare Willis), Big Mijo (Jo'Artis Ratti), Miss Prissy and Lil' C, clown dancers whose style got too rugged for clowning. Raw, spiritual and battle-ready. Rize (Sundance, 2005) took it worldwide.Wikipedia, Krumping; Rize (David LaChapelle, 2005)
The Milly Rock2011 · Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New YorkCreated in 2011 by Brooklyn rapper 2 Milly (Terrence Ferguson); the song came out on YouTube in August 2014. In November 2018 Epic Games sold it in Fortnite as 'Swipe It' without his permission. Epic's lawyer told the court: 'No one can own a dance step.'Wikipedia, 2 Milly; Digital Music News (March 8, 2019)