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3 Awkward Moves: Dance Lessons from the 1940s Marya Annette McQuirter Social dance became critical to African Americans as they adapted to the numerous changes of the 1940s. In that decade, African Americans experienced major social transformations, including one of the largest migrations of the century from the rural and urban South to northern, western, and midwestern urban centers . This migration was precipitated by a desire for better education , employment, and a relief from segregation and discrimination . Also important, but often ignored as a major factor in this movement, was the desire for more access to leisure and culture. Indeed, greater access to government jobs and increased income allowed for fuller participation in the ever-expanding leisure and consumer culture. Within this culture of consumption—shopping at chain stores, listening to the radio, purchasing records, and going to the movies—African Americans from a range of geographical spaces attempted to create new urban identities. Social dance figured as one of the central arenas in which the process of identity formation became manifest.This was a process both awkward and exciting, and in this chapter I shall focus on the notion of awkwardness. Awkwardness is generally seen as anathema to the discourse on black dance. Too often, both dancers and analyses of dance as a vital and pleasurable social practice hide moments of awkwardness . But awkwardness is felt in many instances: by those who cannot dance, by dance partners who do not move well together, in those first moments when two strangers attempt to 81 82 /  1:  dance together, when a band attempts to swing the crowd and fails, when one first tries to learn a new dance, and when saying no (or being told no) when asked to (or being asked to) dance. Recognition and exploration of the concept of awkwardness is central to understanding the formation of a dancing public in the 1940s. DANCE LESSON 1: LOCU-MOTIONS [I would go] up to the Savoy Ballroom very often to hear Count Basie . . . downtown to hear Don Shirley, and back up to Manhattan Casino to hear Charlie Parker and get ‘‘twisted around’’ trying to dance to those ‘‘off beat riffs,’’ and down to the Apollo to hear Dizzy Gillespie take flight. Paul Robeson, Paul Robeson, ca. 1960 Researchers of jazz music and dance posit that prior to the 1940s, when ‘‘swing’’ was in full effect, citizens across the United States danced incessantly to big band sounds. But by the end of World War II—because of a tax levied on large dance halls,1 the growth of small clubs that had little or no dance floors, and the advent of ‘‘bebop’’—dancing was obliterated. To these researchers, social dancing virtually ended in the 1940s, and a vibrant dancing public was transformed into a sedentary listening public because of that blasted bebop.2 I find this narrative problematic for several reasons. First, it is based primarily on the dancing scene in New York and a lessening of opportunities for professional dancers, particularly tappers, who performed with musicians.3 Second, it is written as if prior to the 1940s, ‘‘dancers’’ and ‘‘listeners’’ were not sharing and battling for the dance floor.This assumes that the body that ‘‘dances’’ does not also ‘‘listen.’’ Finally, it allows little acknowledgment of a consistent ebb and flow of citizens’ fascinations with a range of dance styles. Did bebop portend the end of social dancing in the 1940s? A perusal through Down Beat, a popular jazz music magazine, belies this assertion. Articles about dance clubs opening up throughout the country and the various dances performed in them counter this common claim. In 1945, an article in Down Beat proclaimed, :   / 83 ‘‘Terp Lovers Get Own Ballroom’’: ‘‘Two combination ballrooms and dancing schools have opened and promise a new fad for the area. Both spots teach the wall-huggers how to terp and then send them into their own dance halls to practice what they teach.’’ In 1947, Down Beat reported, ‘‘New Dancery for Chi South Side’’: ‘‘Newest ballroom here, the Parkway Arena, is on the old White City Amusement Park Grounds,where the old ballroom has operated sporadically the last few years. Tony Pastor was the first attraction . . . with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Lois Russell and Dizzy Gillespie, following.’’4 Further evidence for the continued existence of social dancing in the 1940s comes from a more accurate understanding of bebop. As the decade was ending, bebop became a popular music form that spawned its own...

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