The Big Apple

for more info:
dancehistory.org

Category:

Music

Tags:

• big
• apple
• swing
• lindy
• hop
• charleston
• suzieq
• pecking

[NoirFemme]

We need to go back to this sort of organized dance! It's so irritating going to clubs and seeing everyone flail and grind about.

[gcrav]

Funny thing about that era. Racism was just accepted but for the first time it became acceptable for "nice" white folks to emulate black.

[ATandT2U]

@gcrav

All I know is that she was one of Arthur Murray's original Shag Dancers. She also taught for Arthur Murray. I have lots of old Arthur Murray info sitting in a trunk that I haven't looked at since she passed. One of the things in the trunk is a pattern you place on the floor for dancing the Big Apple. Perhaps, if I go through the trunk I might find something about Billy Spivey. I need to install my scanner so I can put a video together of some of the old 20th Century Fox promo pics.

[gcrav]

@ATandT2U Was your mother one of the Billy Spivey dancers?

[gcrav]

@mcareyop

The Big Apple hit the national scene in late 1937. This might be a Billy Spivey's Big Apple Dancers show from around that time.

[mcareyop]

What year was this? About 1936 or 1937?  Anybody know for sure?

[TheViewFromSugarHill]

all of the se dances wre the creations of African americans, so was the music! Yet this was at the height of white racist policies in the US. This should be a lesson to these silly rappers and their unthinking fans who argue that because white folks like rap racism is over!

[gcrav]

black bottom Charleston, truckin, Suzie Q, moochin(?), peckin, shag, Lindy hop

[KyndalSarah]

What is the third dance the announcer shouts? Actually I am having a hard time understanding most of what he is saying, could someone name off in order what dances he shouts?

[ATandT2U]

I came back to view this video again and since Mother's Day just passed, I thought of this video. My mother is the one who dances when the Charleston comes up!

[ATandT2U]

Fun to watch this! My mother was one of the original Arthur Murray Shag dancers. I am watching her in this film now. Thank you for posting this video.