What is blues dancing?

Where did blues music and dance originate?

Blues music originated in the southern part of the United States, created by Black Americans during the time of enslavement. African-American history and culture are a core foundation of the blues, and the music developed out of spiritual music and work songs. In the early 1900s, sharecropping, Jim Crow laws, and racial persecution led to a mass migration of Black Americans from the southeast to northern and western states (the first and second Great Migration) in search of safer living situations and better jobs. As people moved, the blues moved with them, and expanded from the older Delta blues styles to the diverse range of blues styles we are familiar with today. 

Blues dances are vernacular dances. In other words, these dances were not formally created or taught, they developed organically alongside blues music and danced primarily within the community. From this, we can describe the different styles of blues music in two larger groups, juke joint blues and ballroom blues, based on the places where the music was played and where people danced. Ballroom blues includes the styles of music and dances that came out of large ballrooms. These tend to be jazzier big band styles of music, with dancing that travels around the spacious ballroom, perhaps with showy or large movements. Juke joint blues refers to the styles of music or dancing that would be more common in smaller, crowded, and more casual venues like bars, juke joints, and house parties. 

What is the blues aesthetic?

Even though blues music and dancing captures a diverse range of styles, they all share things in common due to their roots and origins. We call this the blues aesthetic. In the blues aesthetic, a dancer has groundedness, lag, and pulse, as well as an athletic posture. Principles like musicality, improvisation, polyrhythm, individualism, coolness, and ephebism are valued. Blues music and dancing often incorporates a call and response pattern, between musicians, between dancers, and between a dancer and the music. 

Blues music and dancing also expresses a wide range of emotion and human experiences, grounded in the culture and history of Black Americans but also it captures universal human experiences. Many blues songs are about the unjust treatment and struggles of Black Americans, but others focus on love, humor, gospel, loss, joy, success, grief, hope, disappointment, and relationships. If there is an emotion or human experience that exists, there surely is a blues song about it!

Where can I learn more about the blues online?

This description was written by Blues Dance Helsinki board member Stephanie. While writing, I drew from what I have learned about blues music and dancing from years of classes as well as what I learned about American history in school. I don’t have specific references to cite for this information, but if you are interested in reading more about blues dance and music or Black American history and culture, here are some online sources you could read (this list is not exhaustive! Just some resources I am familiar with).