While Juba is a word used for songs sung in plantations.Įven in the 18th century the Juba dance (today known as Charleston) was so popular that a premium was placed on black domestics who would be good Juba dancers to teach the lady of the house some steps. It involves “patting” ("Pattin' Juba") stamping, slapping the chest and arms and clapping. This one-legged sembuka step, over-and-cross, arrived in Charleston between 1735 - 1740.
The Juba dance or hambone, originally known as Pattin' Juba, is an African American style of dance. The name Charleston was given to the Juba dance by Europeans much later when they came to America Africanisms in American Culture, p.52 (.) In African, however, the dance is called Juba or the Djouba. 1800’s - Juba dance as the early origin of the CharlestonĮnslaved Africans brought it (The Charleston dance) from Kongo to Charleston, South Carolina, as the Juba dance, which then slowly evolved into what is now known as Charleston. More specifically it is an authentic jazz dance as it was done to jazz music (“hot jazz” and originally the ragtime) combining elements derived from improvised African dance moves with syncopated jazz rhythms. The Charleston dance belongs to the family of African-American vernacular dances. Come take the journey to understanding the rich past of this dance form.
Here I hope to answer some of those questions. Although we all have an image of white rich flapper girls, dancing the charleston, smoking cigarettes and smiling on screen, do we really know who invented the first steps that came to be The Charleston dance? How did the dance come to be? And how did it get its name? Why are there so few images of Black Charleston dancers? I can tell you now, it may not be as simple as it was named after the city and popularised by flappers. Any of us that dance swing surely love the Charleston dance! But so few of us know the history, where the dance originated.
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