Dancing 'Till Dawn: A Century of Exhibition Ballroom Dance

“And do a Grizzly”: Djuna Barnes and Dancing Animals in the New York Press

“…53 The popularity of the "Grizzly Bear" dance, and its animal companions, emerged at the moment when social dancing in America was undergoing the "revolution" that Barnes's journalism records. 54 At the beginning of the twentieth century more formal nineteenthcentury ballroom dances such as the cotillion gave way to "looser, more physically expressive" social dancing whose new movement vocabulary and "heightened awareness of the body" was influenced by musical developments such as ragtime. 55 Ragtime dances were a hybrid of Black American movement aesthetics and the partnered walking forms of white Euro-American social dance.…”

Between Sport and Leisure: Competitive Senior Ballroom Dancing as Serious Leisure

“…Upon reviewing the literature, I have found only a handful of publications focused primarily on ballroom dancing. Some deal with the history of dance and its evolution from its folk origins into international style (Malnig 1992;Cresswell 2006). Julie Malnig (1992) shows how competitive ballroom dance underwent a process of ennoblement and class elevation-from lower-class origins to salons.…”

“…Some deal with the history of dance and its evolution from its folk origins into international style (Malnig 1992;Cresswell 2006). Julie Malnig (1992) shows how competitive ballroom dance underwent a process of ennoblement and class elevation-from lower-class origins to salons. She noted that dances such as tango, cha-cha, rumba, and samba were popular among poor people in the less-developed part of the world and were adapted for Western culture through a substantial shift in their manner of execution.…”