AMERICA DANCES! 1897-1948
Collector's Edition Social Dance in Film

See List of Film Clips Below

AMERICA DANCES! 1897-1948
Collector's Edition Social Dance in Film
DVD - 75 minutes

This exciting new video offers an opportunity to see rare historical clips of "dance on film" which have been lost to the public for years…until now!

Step back in time and enjoy this 'primary source' of over 60 historical dance film clips in America Dances! 1897-1948: A Collector's Edition of Social Dance in Film. This nostalgic history lesson provides an engrossing record of our changing dance styles from the first part of the 20th century. The retrospective spans the panorama from average Americans dancing in newsreels to top quality performers who have left a dance legacy of graceful moves across the ballroom floor.

The DVD records some of the pivotal dance moments of our history. The improvisational base for 20th century social dance begins with wild cakewalk/animal dance fads. The 1920s explodes the limits of social dance in the Blackbottom and Charleston. Dance Marathons and the influential Lindy Hop emerge triumphant in the 1930s. Finally, the 1940s are distinguished by romantic Latin dances and feature film "aerial" athletics.

Highlights in the collection are: elegant performances from the silent film era by Irene and Vernon Castle (the role models for modern ballroom dance), Blackbottom clips demonstrating colloquial roots, newsreels showing Charleston contests, excruciating couple dancing in the interminable dance marathons, and a variety of the finest clips available for the show-stopping Lindy Hop, celebrated by the renown Whitey's Lindy Hoppers.

There are more than 60 irreplaceable film excerpts that show people from many walks of life and how they danced. This is a collectible treasure, to preserve for future generations.

America Dances! represents 20 years of film collectables by Dance Historian, Carol Teten, Artistic Director of the internationally known dance company, DANCE THROUGH TIME and President of DANCETIME PUBLICATIONS.

Note: Most of the film clips do not use the original music but use dubbed-in piano music instead, perfectly coordinated with the dancing.The producer of this DVD decided to do that because of not having the rights to the music

LIST OF FILM CLIPS:

1897-1919 | From the Cakewalk to the Castle Walk
• Charity Ball
• Foxy Grandpa & Polly in A Little Hilarity
• Cakewalk
• Comedy Cakewalk
• Comedy Cakewalk on Beach
• One Step: Everybody's Doin' It Now
• Comic Fox Trot with Mr. & Mrs. Sydney Drew
• Airplane Waltz
• Two Step
• Irene and Vernon Castle :The Whirl of Life

1920-1929 | From the Blackbottom to the Lindy Hop
• Let's Do The Blackbottom
• Charleston Basics
• Charleston and Blackbottom
• Charleston in Newsreels
• Charleston Dance Contests
• Charleston Contests
• Ballroom Acrobats
• Shimmy
• Raggedy Ann, Tangolio
• Kinkerjeu, Lindy Whirl, Yankee Prance
• Old Fashioned Waltz
• Lindy Hop Introduction
• Lindy Hop

1930-1939+ | From Dance Marathons to Lindy Hop / Jitterbug Contests
• Dance Marathon Newsreels
• 8 Couples Remain in Grueling 3 Month Dancing Marathon
• Exhausted Couples Drag Fatigued Feet in Endurance Walk
• Tired Couples Totter On Feet Over 2,500 Hours
• Endurance Dancers Still Seek Record After 5 Months
• Lambeth Walk
• Waltz: New York City
• Waltz, Rumba, Mambo: Harvest Moon Ball
• New Style Rhumba Makes a Hit with Winter Tourists
• Susie Q Basics
• Big Apple Basics
• Big Apple Dance: A Tarheel Stomp Agitates Country
• From the Minuet to the Big Apple
• Big Apple: Keep Punching
• Collegiate Shag
• 200,000 Jitterbugs go Slap Happy at Swing Jamboree
• Beach Resort has New Slant on Jitterbug
• A Dizzy Round of Jitterbug and Jive Hits the Big Town
• Lindy Hop: Harvest Moon Ball
• Lindy Hop/Jitterbug Jive: New York City
• Lindy Hop: Harvest Moon Ball
• Lindy Hop: Harvest Time in Rhythm
• Lindy Hop: Newsreel

1939-1948 | From Romantic Dance to Acrobatic Classics
• Waltz: Irene Castle at the World's Fair
• Adagio: May I Have The Next Trance With You?
• Adagio: Dreamland of Mine
• Cuban Pete delete what was written here
• A Rumba Story
• Rumba with Spice
• Mexican Jumping Bean
• Conga Loca
• Rhumba Serenade: Mi Rumba
• Lindy Hop: Keep Punching
• Lindy Hop: Cottontail (Hot Chocolates)
• Lindy Hop: Boy! What a Girl!
• Lindy Hop: Killer Diller