I
was curious, having heard recordings of Canaro playing foxtrot. &
of course we know from the old-timers that it used to be a popular
dance in Buenos Aires alongside tango. YouTube found me this:
Fascinating!
First off, I checked the British Pathe site, and the film is early
1920s, so it is silent. The soundtrack has been added, but it seems
to fit the dance well enough to give an idea of the musicality.
So
it's an upright and close-embrace dance! Quite unlike the ballroom
version. & doesn't it look as if it could be an improvised dance?
It's a walking dance with a traspie to the front and side,
the sort of thing you could improvise as the music played, especially
since the embrace is close: as in tango, the leader's torso would
signal movements. Of course, the partner would be listening to the
music too, and would know what to expect. It doesn't look like it
needs to be a choreographed dance.
Wikipedia
is the next port of call. Why is it called Fox Trot? Because the
basic walk is danced with the feet along a straight line: the prints
of a fox's paws in the snow are in a straight line. (The prints of a
dog show two lines.) Fascinating! Especially since that's the effect
of 'collecting'. I find 'collecting' hard to remember and practice,
but think of it as stepping in exactly the place your partner's
foot has just left and it makes
sense, to me anyway. It's a very neat, tidy walk, stepping right
under your partner. Watch any video of Osvaldo and Coca...
The
Foxtrot was picked up around 1912 by Vernon Castle, from an
'exclusive coloured club' where it had been danced for some years.
Vernon and his wife Irene were prominent US dance teachers and
enthusiasts for Afro-American music. It was to become the most
popular of social dances; most dance records up until the 1950s were
foxtrot.
Two
curious facts: when the Castles first introduced it they called it
the 'Bunny hug' -- and then decided better. & when Decca released
Rock around the Clock they didn't know what to call this kind of
music, so they called it a Foxtrot. Rock around the Clock was the
best-selling foxtrot of all time.
Couldn't
the foxtrot make a come-back? Not the (rather absurd) choreographed
ballroom version, but the neat, elegant version of this film, which
I'd assume is much closer to the original? Alongside tango, vals,
milonga? It seems to belong to that family of dances, even if the
music is different.
