Dance clubs became enormously popular in the 1920s. Their popularity peaked in the late 1920s and reached into the early 1930s. Dance music came to dominate all forms of popular music by the late 1920s. Dance clubs across the U.S. sponsored dance contests, where dancers invented, tried, and competed with new moves. The most popular dances throughout the decade were the foxtrot and waltz. However, a variety of eccentric novelty dances were developed such as the Charleston.
THE COTTON CLUB
The Cotton Club was a famous jazz music night club located in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City which operated from 1923 to 1940, most notably during America's Prohibition Era lasting from 1919 to 1933. The club was a white-only establishment even though it featured many of the greatest Black entertainers of the time.
THE CHARLESTON
The Charleston was a dance whose rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called "The Charleston."
The Charleston is most frequently associated with flappers and the speakeasy. Here, young women would dance alone or together as a way of mocking the "drys," or citizens who supported the prohibition amendment. Then, the Charleston was considered quite provocative.
The Charleston is most frequently associated with flappers and the speakeasy. Here, young women would dance alone or together as a way of mocking the "drys," or citizens who supported the prohibition amendment. Then, the Charleston was considered quite provocative.