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By the 1890s there was a huge increase in the popularity of social
and folk dance forms. Many working class dances were taken up
by members of high society and dancing lessons became fashionable.
Society ladies began to learn folk dances such as jigs, hornpipes,
Spanish dance and step dancing.
Many different types of dance evolved on the stages of popular
theatres in the 19th century. In the 1870s and 1880s, skirt
dancing was the fashion. Tap dancing and soft shoe routines
were made popular by the Black musical, In
Dahomey, and other American musicals to visit London.
For a time dancers dressed as Dutch girls and clog dances were
popular, as was the adagio act. This was a mix of dance and acrobatics,
where a girl was lifted, thrown or swung by her partners in an
exhilarating but dangerous routine.
The term ‘eccentric dance’ on a music hall programme hid a wide
range of styles. One emphasised the dancers’ legs, high kicking
or out of control, often referred to as ‘legmania’. In the 20th
century Max Wall was known for his out of control lanky legs.
Wilson, Keppel and Betty, also qualified as eccentric dancers.
They were two decrepit, extremely thin men who performed a spoof
sand dance, in vaguely Egyptian or Oriental style, wearing what
appeared to be short nightshirts with tea towel headdresses or
a fez. When they performed in Berlin in the 1930s, wearing shorter
skirts,
Goebbels complained that their bare legs were undermining the morals of
Nazi youth. There were several Bettys (the original, her daughter
and her daughter) who always had to appear glamorous, but Wilson
and Keppel became more and more decrepit.
More dance acts can be found in the Music
Halls guided tour.
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Introduction
Ballet at the Alhambra and Empire Theatres
