Cakewalk The dance called the Cakewalk is known as the most popular black social dance to influence the social dancing of the ragtime era (NADINE GEORGE-GRAVES56). The dance was made up of both African American women and men that were slaves of this time period. This dance was a sense of peace of mind. It offered a way out of the normal lives of slaves. While doing this dance, everyone could get together and let loose. This also allowed everyone to get together and gossip about anything going on in their lives. The Cakewalk started in Florida. Even though this dance was made popular by the slaves, they copied the idea from a local tribe of indians. Some of the movements they used in the Cakewalk were common in other tribes. It’s …show more content…
They leaned back and forth while prancing around in a high stepping manner. The men in the dance would wear suits that had tails. Also, they would wear top hats, canes, and of course, bow ties. The women in the dance would wear long flowing dresses with heels. They often carried a parasol. The majority of these dances were held on Saturday night in the plantations of whites. They were held on many different occasions. For the most part, they were done at harvest time or the crop-over. All slaves would participate in these dances because of how “free” they got to be. Even the younger slaves such as children would take part in this dance because it let them have fun and be “normal” …show more content…
I have always thought that the Cakewalk was just a simple game everyone played at the fair. What I didn’t know was that it was a form of dance. This dance was danced by many people during that time period, many different people came together during this time to form a social dance. During my research, I not only found the true meaning of the cakewalk, but I also discovered a hidden piece of history. I would have never known that the Cakewalk we simply just dance around on numbers and win a cake was a piece of history. The Cakewalk is important to many people. The slaves will never know the impact that they had and made by dancing even by the mocking they did of the early white