Eccentric dancers would do things such as the Snake Hips Dance, The Shimmy, dancing on a ball, balancing something in their mouth while dancing, Juggle, dancing on their head, Legomania (aka Rubberlegs), using Whips, doing contortionist movements, dance in a handstand, balancing acts, and some acrobatic dance acts etc. Sometimes when new or unknown dance was being created or introduced, the reporters / Critics would list it as an eccentric or Jig dance for lack of a proper name. Todays modern "Hip Hop, The Robot and Vogue" type dancers would
be considered eccentric back then as many movements in Hip-Hop actually came from this time and style of dance. As an example in 1923, Foots Robinson (Green and Robinson) did a dance where he would drop to the ground while dancing, spin on his back to the music and end in a pose. Usually these dances would be performed in Medicine shows, Gille's, Circus, Vaudeville and Burlesque acts on the stage or maybe a theme dance for the show.
Many dancers would be labeled as Eccentric dancers at sometime during their career. Dancers like George M. Cohan, Leon Errol, George White, Joe Frisco, Harland Dixon, Ray Bolger, James Barton, Hal Leroy, Buddy Ebsen, Charlie Chapin and many more would carry this label, but most of them were so much more.
Later the category Eccentric dance name would change to Cabaret dance.
