“BLACK BOTTOM”

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10316, 27 January 1927, Page 7

“BLACK BOTTOM”

LATEST DANCE CRAZE COMES TO LONDON. LONDON, Jan. IK Meet the latest dance craze—BlackBottom T Black Bottom is the rage in New York and Paris. Its advent in this country has been retarded by the extreme character of the only ballroom version" so- far devised by terpsichoreau experts. But it is coming. A preliminary demonstration was given in London by Mr. Scott Atkinson and his pie tty partner, who dance at the Empress Rooms. It was a private demonstration . and all that can be said of it to date is that in its present form it is likely to be regarded as somewhat too bizarre for English ballrooms. But the dance experts have it in hand, and something may come of it. After all, the lithe men and slim young women dancers who tamed the version of the buck dance called the Charleston into a respectable and even irresistible ballroom dance, which can be done with propriety in every town, suburban and provincial ballroom, should be able ,to accomplish a similar miracle with this newest dance whim MODIFIED VERSION. It will, of course, be greeted here with horror —as the first waltz, the first foxtrot, the first tango, and the first Charleston were. It is as v.-ell, therefore, that the public should Ijnow that there are several versions of Black Bottom. One version one sees in vaudeville in the States and Paris; another version one sees in the night clubs of both cities; and a third version is danced in the colored dance haunts of Harlem, New York’s negro quarter. Before the dance reaches our dance programmes it will have to ho filtered down considerably from the .mildest version of these three. The dance originated on the hanks of the Mississippi, where the negroes indulged in dancing even when they had to dance on the silted mud of tho river bottom when the tide had receded. It was a typical negro dance, embodying parts of the Charleston—which, by the way, is a primitive rhythmic dance that comes naturally to all mankind. ‘ NAME SECRET. Shuffling, sliding and stamping are the three outstanding actions in Black Bottom—so called from the silted mud on tlie bed of the Mississippi. Some of tlie dancers in New York and Paris • introduce a suggestion of a tango movement with the hip-shifting movement emphasised. In the extreme version something of the Hawaiian hula-hula wriggle is introduced. •