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Joan Sawyer was one of the most successful
female dancers in the nightclub circuit in the 1910s. She
started her professional dance career in 1907 in the production
of the Vanderbilt Cup. Her shrewd business sense and self
promotion garnered her top billing among her dance partners
hips, some who were very famous dancers themselves such
as Rudolph Valentino (not yet a movie star) who she
partnered for months in the Vaudeville circuit.
She was very popular with New York's '400'.
Around 1914 she would manage, dance, teach and perform at
the very popular "Persian Garden" (in Winter
Garden Building).
Joan's main dance competition was the Castle's,
Mouvet
and Walton.
Joan is said to have created the Aeroplane Walt and Joanelle
dance. In 1913, Lew Quinn and Joan Sawyer made the first
real attempt to introduce a new dance to the United States
called the Rhumba.
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