The Charleston may have a long history. The Branle of 1520 is presumed to be very similar to the Charleston. As far as an African-American influence, most dance historians summarize that the "Ash-Ante (Ashanti) Peoples" of Africa to be the originator. On the other hand, there are descriptions and pictures to a dance in the Harper's Weekly Magazine (October 13th. 1866) that is very similar to the Charleston (which was most likely the Branle).

Nevertheless, the Charleston dance became established (worldwide)during the Ragtime-Jazz period. The series of steps are thought to have originated with the African-Americans who were

living on a small island near Charleston, South Carolina. And some say it is from the Cape Verde Islands in Western Africa. The Charleston, was performed as early as 1903 in the Southern States. As time went on it was being used as a regular cotillion step and finally made its way, all dressed up, (as we know it today) into Harlem stage productions by 1913 Says James P. Johnson. Henry " Rubberlegs" Williams says it was the first dance he won a contest in the mid teens.

   The 5/1921 show called 'Shuffle' Along' also had some Charleston dancing, but not yet recognized as such, they were just referred as the Fastest dancers ever seen or a Colored Cast Revue. In 1922/3, it was introduced to the theater going public at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York when the "Ziegfeld Follies," staged a dance act that featured the Charleston. Ned Wayburn was the choreographer, and Sissle (1889-1975) and Blake introduced a young African-American boy to Wayburn. The boy demonstrated what was to be the signature step of the Charleston. Wayburn supposedly choreographed a few more steps and Sissle and Blake wrote the songs ... it was an immediate hit.

In that same year, (11/1922) a stage play by the name of "Liza" had introduced the dance done by Rufus Greenlee and Maude Russell but went un-noticed. And yet again on October 29th, 1923 with the Flournoy Miller / Aubrey Lyles Broadway show "Runnin' Wild." Runnin' Wild was produced by George White who introduced a song and dance called the "Charleston" which was written by James P. Johnson. Elida Webb did the Choreography as well as alleging to have invented it (not true). The dancing was done by the shows chorus boys called the "Dancing Redcaps," who used no musical accompaniment except hand clapping and foot stamping. Edith Mae Barnes claimed it was she who introduced the dance in the 1923 show 'Runnin Wild' where it received its greatest acclaim.

   In the 1920's, Women who did the Charleston were called "Flappers" because of the way they would flap their arms and walk like birds while doing the Charleston. Many Collegiate's of the period, predominantly the men wore Raccoon Coats and Straw Hats. The Charleston changed many things in the dance community, namely dance was now not just something you did or watched, you could do both.

   Not everyone had good luck with the Charleston. Many non-dancing jobs of the day required you to be competent to dance or teach the Charleston in order to get the job. Many waiters and waitresses would have to do the Charleston during their Job. Many saw the Charleston and Flappers as the downfall to many moral issues of the day. In 1925, Variety Magazine reported that in Boston, the vibrations of Charleston dancers were so strong that the dancers caused the "Pickwick Club" (a tenderloin dance hall) to collapse, killing fifty of its patrons.

Movie Personalities ...
1) "Bessie Love" has been recorded as doing the first "On Screen" Charleston in the 1925 film 'King on Main Street'.
2) "Joan Crawford" won many Charleston contests including the "Movie Weekly Stage Contest," which helped her movie career get started.
3) "Ginger Rogers" won Texas State Charleston contest at the "Texas Hotel" in Fort Worth, Texas, after she won, she headed for the Grand Championships at the "Baker Hotel" in Dallas Texas on November 9th, 1925 which she won again and that began Miss Rogers career in the movies. (The following year she lost to the Sullivan's)
4) In February of 1926, Jim & Louise Sullivan won the National World Charleston Championships with Ginger Rogers placing second (or reportedly third.) It was held in Chicago, IL. at the Beach Hotel's "Trianon Ballroom." Tom Sheehy sponsored this contest.

5) "Bee Jackson" was also a world Charleston champion (year unknown.) and was noted as starting the Charleston craze.
6) Dottie Wilson danced the CHARLESTON in Harry Carroll's Revue in 1924 (Hayfoot-Strawfoot Charleston).

     In 1926 a dance called the "Black Bottom" became the craze and briefly replaced the Charleston all together with the exception of it being done in the Lindy Hop (In 1927 "Shorty George" Snowden renamed the Breakaway the Lindy Hop.) However, the popularity of the Charleston would last and be re-introduced over and over again over the years, unlike the Black Bottom. The Lindy had integrated many of the Charleston steps into the Breakaway, thus creating a new dance structure he called the Lindy Hop. The "Mashed Potato" was a later day form of Charleston and can be seen repeatedly in today's modern "West Coast Swing," which is a part of "funky swing" (West Coast Swing done to Contemporary/Funk Music.) The Charleston can be done as a solo or couple dance.

In 1926 Willie Higgie of Higgie and Brown, a well known Vaudeville dance act claimed that he invented the Charleston (aka Charleston Walk by him) in a back stage Theatre in Washington before Wayburn and was mad that Wayburn was taking the credit (Willie is not the person Wayburn saw before the show.)

    Some Partner Charleston pattern names are:
Back Charleston, Flying Charleston, Hand to Hand Charleston, Same Foot Charleston, Crossed Arm Charleston, etc.

Other Dances of the time ...

Aeroplane Waltz

Castle Walk

Hippohop

Maurice Tango

Shiver Shake

Apache Dance

Charleston

Honey Bug

Maxixe

Skirt Dance

Argentine Ardor

Chicken Flip

Hooche Cooche

Mess Around, the

Slow Drag

Arizona Anguish

Collegiate

Horsetrot

Mooche, the

Syncopated Canter

Bacchanalian waltz

Collegiate Foxtrot

Hug-Me-Tight

Mooch and Sugar

Tango

Baltimore Buzz

Collegiate Shag

Innovation

Necktie Waltz

Tap Dance (Charleston Tap)

Bambuca

Dewey Dip

Jazzarimba

One Step

Terripan Toddle

Black Bottom

Dizzy Drag

Kangaroo Canter

Ostrich Stretch

Texas Tommy

Boll Weevil Wiggle

Fado Foxtrot

Kangaroo Waltz

Pavlova Gavotte

Boston Dip

Foxtrot

Kitchen Sink

Peabody

Toddle

Break away

Funky Butt

Lambeth Walk

Pickaninny Dandle

Turkey Trot

Bunny Hug

Fuzzy-Wuzzy

Lame Duck

Pollywog Wiggle

Two-Step

Buzzard Lope

Gaby Glide

Lemon Squeeze

Puppy Snuggle

Varsity Drag

Cabbage Clutch

Gilda Glide

Lindy Hop

Quickstep

Walkin' The Dog

Camel Walk

Grizzly Bear

Love Dance

Salome dance

Waltz

Cantor Waltz

Grizzly Glide

LuLu Fado

Shadow Dance

Whirlwind Waltz

Cartel Waltz

Hesitation Waltz

March

Shimmy

Wiggle-de-Wiggle

Films

Other Videos & Music (CD) at Amazon

$ 1920's - Syncopated Melodies*

$ Charleston Jass Two (CD)

1920-29 - 20th Century News Reel (17:07)

$ Charleston Mad (CD)

1925 - King on Main Street

$ Charleston of the Twenties (CD)

$ Strictly Dancing Charleston (CD)

1926 - Charleston in Six Lessons, the (Grauman)

$ The Charleston Days (CD)

1926 - Charleston Queen

$ The Charleston Era (CD)

1926 - Love Em' and Leave'

$ World of Charleston (CD)

1926 - Mildred Unger dances the Charleston

1926 - So This Is Paris

1926 - Social Celebrity

1927 - Charleston (sur un Air de) Catherine Hessling & Monkey

Instructional Videos

$ 1927 - It!

$ 1927 - The Crowd

1927 - Rolled Stockings

1928 - Charleston, le (Renoir Short)

$ 1928 - Our Dancing Daughters (Joan Crawford)

Stage

1929 - After Seben (This Scene is in ' $ At the Jazz Band Ball': Shorty George)

1921 - Shuffle Along

1929 - Broadway Melodies

1922 - Liza

1929 - Hallelujah

1922/3 - Ziegfeld Follies

$ 1931 - The Struggle

1923 - How Come

1937 - Big Apple [Paramount]

1923 - Runnin' Wild

$ 1938 - The Big Broadcast[DVD]

1924 - Harry Carroll's Revue

$ 1939 - Roaring Twenties (Era Stuff)

$ 1942 - Roxie Hart (Ginger Rogers & Blk Btm)

1949 - You're My Everything

1951 - Has Anyone Seen My Gal

$ 1954 - Deep In My Heart (Ann Miller)

Television

$ 1960 - The Jazz Age

$ 1973 - The Sting! [DVD]

other Jazz Music VHS Videos & DVD's

Dancers, Choreographers etc.

1903 - Thaddeus Drayton * (10 years old)

1924 - Dottie Wilson

1905 - Noble Sisle

1925 - Bessie Love

1909 - Coot Grant

1927 - Catherine Hessling (Space/Monkey)

1911 - Whitman Sisters

1925 - George Snowden

1930s - Al Minns

1919 - Billy Maxie (Instructor)

1925 - Ginger Rogers

1930s - Leon James

1920 - Henry 'Rubberlegs' Williams

1925 - Joan Crawford

1938 - Ben Blue (The Big Broadcast)

1922 - Maude Russell

1940 - Ted Rogers

1922 - Rufus Greenlee *

1954 - Ann Miller

1923 - Chappelle & Stinnette

George Raft

1923 - Edith Mae Barnes

1926 - Jim & Louise Sullivan

Perry Bradford and Jeannette

Shirley ' Snowball' Jordan

1926 - Ed B. Browning

Note: Once the 1930's hit, almost every dancer knew the Charleston, sorry if I missed a few thousand NAMES here. :)

Books, Magazine Articles on the dance...

Title

Writer

Date

Publisher

Esquire's 1945 Jazz Book

Esquire Magazine

1945

A.S. Barnes

Down Memory Lane

Murray, Arthur

1954

Greenberg

$) Jazz Dance, the Story of American Vernacular Dance

Marshall and Jean Stearns

1964

DaCapo Press

$ The Magic of Dance

Fonteyn, Margot

1979

Alfred Knopf

$ Ginger, My Story

Rogers, Ginger

1991

Harper Collins

Fashion Books... (Great for Costume Ideas

$ 1920s Fashions: from B. Altman & CO.

Altman & CO.

1999

Dover Pubns.

$ Sears - Everyday Fashions, 1909-1920

Altman & CO.

1995

Dover Pubns.

$ French Fashion Illus. of the 1920s: 634 cuts from La Vie Parisienne

Carol Belanger Grafton

1987

Dover Pubns.

$ Designs by Erte: Fashion Drawings & Illust. from "Harpers Bazaar"

Erte (Romain de Tirtoff)

1976

Dover Pubns.

Musicians

Magazine Publications

James P. Johnson

10/13/1866 - Harper's Weekly Magazine

Noble Sissle

8/1921 - Ladies Home Journal Magazine

Eubie Blake

1925 - Variety Magazine

Sidney Betchet

1927 - Movie Weekly Magazine

Clarence Williams

9/26/1950 - Look Magazine

Columbia Reds

1958 - Teen Magazine (Sandra Dee)

Life Magazines (Various)

Max Held's Cartoons

Singers

The Smart Set

Vanity Fair Magazine

Newspaper Publications

Political

2/7/1926 - NY Times: Charleston has captured Fifth Avenue

9/12/1926 - Charleston Gazette (Charleston actually the Branle)

Misc. Research Words that may be related ... to help your searches

23 Skidoo

Ford Model-T

Necking

Renaissance

Betty Boop Cartoons

Garter less Socks

Oxford Bags (pants)

Roaring Twenties

Bobbed Hair

Gilded Age

Patent-Leather Hair

Rumble Seat

Hip Flasks

Petting Parties

Sex

Collegiate

It-Girls

Prohibition

Stockings

Dixie Dugan Cartoons

Marijuana

Raccoon Coats

Straw Hats

Flappers

[Special thanks to: Gloria Cotchonis for her father "Jim Sullivan's" Charleston contest information and videos.]

Other...

Basic Steps: (4/4 time) (SLOW=2 Beats of music)
(See Above blue Pic) Lead starts Left foot, Follow starts Right foot.
[8 count] 2 beats each - 1. 3. 5. and 7 accented beat counts.
(1-2) Slow, Forward Step (Lt),
(3-4) Slow, Forward Kick (Rt),
(5-6) Slow, Back Kick or Step (Rt),
(7-8) Slow, Point or Kick (back) (Lt)
(Note: Counts 7-8 can be Quick-Quick or Rock Step)