Cakewalk

{{Short description|Type of dance}}

{{Other uses|Cakewalk (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox music genre

| name = Cakewalk

| image = File:Cake walk 1903, 10 seconds.gif

| caption = Five dancers perform a cakewalk, 1903

| stylistic_origins = {{hlist|African-American music|Jig|ReelPhilip M. Peek, Kwesi Yankah, African Folklore: An Encyclopedia, 2003, p. 33. {{ISBN|0-203-49314-1}}.{{cite web |url=http://www.basinstreet.com/articles/cwalk.htm |title=Basinstreet.com - Your Online Source for Historical Jazz |access-date=2014-01-31 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150419033014/http://www.basinstreet.com/articles/cwalk.htm |archive-date=2015-04-19 }}}}

| cultural_origins = Southern United States

| derivatives = Ragtime

}}

File:In Dahomey 1903.jpg, Aida Overton Walker, and Bert Williams link arms and dance the cakewalk in the first Broadway musical to be written and performed by African Americans, In Dahomey.]]

File:Leo Rauth Cake-Walk.jpg

File:EbonyEchoes.jpg

The cakewalk was a dance developed from the "prize walks" (dance contests with a cake awarded as the prize) held in the mid-19th century, generally at get-togethers on black slave plantations before and after emancipation in the Southern United States. Alternative names for the original form of the dance were "chalkline-walk", and the "walk-around". It was originally a processional partner dance performed with comical formality, and may have developed as a subtle mockery of the mannered dances of white slaveholders.

Following an exhibition of the cakewalk at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the cakewalk was adopted by performers in minstrel shows, where it was danced exclusively by men until the 1890s. At that point, Broadway shows featuring women began to include cakewalks, and grotesque dances became very popular across the country.{{harvnb|Fletcher|1984|p=103}}.

The fluid and graceful steps of the dance may have given rise to the colloquialism that something accomplished with ease is a "cakewalk".{{Cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/23/256566647/the-extraordinary-story-of-why-a-cakewalk-wasnt-always-easy |title=The Extraordinary Story Of Why A 'Cakewalk' Wasn't Always Easy |last=Gandhi |first=Lakshmi |date=December 23, 2013 |work=NPR |access-date=2019-07-23 |language=en}}

As a plantation dance

=Firsthand accounts=

The cakewalk was influenced by the ring shout, which survived from the 18th into the 20th century.{{Cite web|title=jazz dance {{!}} Definition, History, Characteristics, Types, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/jazz-dance|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}} This dance style was often part of African American slaves' religious ceremonies and involved shuffling the feet counterclockwise in a circle (ring) formation and reciting spirituals in a call-and-response format with others outside of the ring.{{Cite web |last=Campbell |first=Jennifer |title=Ring shout |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-90000363087 |access-date=2024-11-04 |website=Grove Music Online |date=2019 |language=en |doi=10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.90000363087|isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 }}File:Eli Green's cake-walk (NYPL Hades-464080-1165854).jpg

There is extensive first-person testimony from emancipated slaves about the culture and dancing they developed among themselves on the plantations, including the dances that developed into the cakewalk.{{harvnb|Baldwin|1981|p=207}}.{{harvnb|Baldwin|1981|p=209}}. Louise Jones spoke of "Sech dancin' you never seen before. Slaves would set de flo' in turns, an' do de cakewalk mos' all night." Georgia Baker said that she sang cakewalk songs as a child, and was amused that as an adult, she "would be cakewalkin' to de same song."{{harvnb|Baldwin|1981|pp=207, 208}}. Estella Jones described nighttime parties with elaborate dress, some of which were attended by the slaveowners, who would judge the dancing and award cakes to the winners.{{harvnb|Baldwin|1981|p=208}}.

=Secondhand, oral-tradition accounts=

James Weldon Johnson, born in 1871, recounted a cakewalk at a ball in his 1912 novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.James Weldon Johnson: The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, 1912, Chapter 5, p. 50

File:Cake walk poster 1896.jpg

Some secondhand accounts of the cakewalk describe it as a subtle mockery of the formal, mannered dancing practiced by slaveholding whites. The slaves would dress in handed-down finery and comically exaggerate the poised movements of minuets and waltzes."Cakewalk King", Ebony, February 1953. Vol. 8, p. 100. These accounts describe any slaveowners in attendance as unaware that they were being mocked. One man recalled such a dance that his childhood nanny had described to him: "Sometimes the white folks noticed it, but they seemed to like it; I guess they thought we couldn't dance any better." A 1981 article by Brooke Baldwin concludes that the cakewalk was meant "to satirize the competing culture of supposedly 'superior' whites. Slaveholders were able to dismiss its threat in their own minds by considering it as a simple performance which existed for their own pleasure".Baldwin 1981, p. 211.

Entertainer Tom Fletcher, born in 1873,{{harvnb|Fletcher|1984|p=5}}. wrote in 1954 that his grandparents told him about the chalk-line walk/cakewalk as a child, but had no information about its origins.{{harvnb|Fletcher|1984|p=108}}. In their version, "there was no prancing, just a straight walk on a path made by turns and so forth, along which the dancers made their way with a pail of water on their heads. The couple that was the most erect and spilled the least water or no water at all was the winner."Jacqui Malone, Steppin' on the Blues, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 19. {{ISBN|0-252-02211-4}}. He describes it being "revived with fancy steps by Charlie Johnson, a clever eccentric dancer" and becoming known as the "Cake Walk".{{harvnb|Fletcher|1984|p=41}}.Lynne Fauley Emery, Black Dance in the United States from 1619 to 1970, California: National Press Books, 1972, p. 207. {{ISBN|0-87484-203-4}}.

Alternative explanations

It has been suggested that the cakewalk originated in Florida, with the war dances of the Seminole Tribe. Ethel L. Urlin, writing in the book Dancing, Ancient and Modern (1912), described these dances as consisting of "wild and hilarious jumping and gyrating, alternating with slow processions in which the dancers walked solemnly in couples," which he believed grew into the cakewalk style.{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/dancingancientmo00urlirich |title=page 13 text available at this url |work=Archive.org |access-date=2011-05-19}} The Encyclopedia of Social Dance echoed this, stating that the dance spread from Florida to Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and eventually New York, with the development of Florida into a winter tourist destination in the 1880s.Albert and Josephine Butler, Encyclopedia of Social Dance, 1971 and 1975. Albert Butler Ballroom Dance Service. New York, NY, p. 309 in 1975 edition. no ISBN or other ID.

The authors of Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance reported that an informal experiment with African dancers undertaken in the 1950s turned up "no worthy African counterpart" to the cakewalk.{{harvnb|Stearns|Stearns|1994|p=11}}. The same book noted eyewitness reports of dances from South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria that bore a resemblance to the cakewalk, with no elaboration.{{harvnb|Stearns|Stearns|1994|p=13}}.

In his book How to Tell a Story and Other Essays originally published in 1897, Mark Twain briefly mentions the cakewalk: {{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/howtotellastory00twairich/page/n25/mode/1up | title=How to tell a story : And other essays | date=1897 }}

Our negroes in America have several ways of entertaining themselves which are not found among the whites anywhere. Among these inventions of theirs is one which is particularly popular with them. It is a competition in elegant deportment. They hire a hall and bank the spectators' seats in rising tiers along the two sides, leaving all the middle stretch of the floor free. A cake is provided as a prize for the winner in the competition, and a bench of experts in deportment is appointed to award it. Sometimes there are as many as fifty contestants, male and female, and five hundred spectators. One at a time the contestants enter, clothed regardless of expense in what each considers the perfection of style and taste, and walk down the vacant central space and back again with that multitude of critical eyes on them (...) The negroes have a name for this grave deportment-tournament; a name taken from the prize contended for. They call it a Cake-Walk.

Lack of detail/consistency in explanation of the cakewalk's origin

It is believed that the satirical nature of the cakewalk led to its being overlooked by archivists. Many of the members of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration who were tasked with recording information about slave culture assumed that the cakewalk was simply frivolous entertainment. As such, they never asked their interviewees (former slaves) to elaborate on the singing and dancing traditions in which slaves would participate. This runs in opposition to the researchers' interest in slave spirituals and religious practices, where interviewees were often asked to demonstrate examples from those traditions. As Baldwin argues:

The interviewers willingly believed that slaves could express a child-like faith in the white Christian God (whites had not yet guessed at the hidden-revolutionary meanings of spirituals), but they could not conceive of blacks participating in a rich cultural life independent of European forms. Thus they felt no need to press the ex-slaves for further explanations of remarks which hinted that such a culture indeed existed.
It is also likely that as the cakewalk was appropriated into white culture, it lost much connection to its history. Even if white people had once perceived it as a threat, they were able to dismiss that notion "by considering it as a simple performance which existed merely for their own pleasure. To coopt the cakewalk, physically seize control of it, was within the power of whites who "owned" the blacks with whom they lived."

Brooke Baldwin's 1981 article claims that, failing to successfully turn the cakewalk into a white art form, it instead was heavily degraded by white caricaturists. They spun the narrative of the cakewalk as a mediocre emulation of white culture, further clouding its true origins as satire of slaveowner aristocracy: "Cakewalkers were made to appear ludicrous."{{sfn|Baldwin|1981|p=216}} This idea of the cakewalk became so prevalent that for a long time, the "cakewalk clown"{{sfn|Baldwin|1981|p=216}} was the mainstream view of the dance and black culture as a whole. It is only recently that researchers have begun correcting that perspective to set the record straight.

Cakewalk as a musical form

Image:Basic habanera rhythm, Orovio 1981 237.png rhythm.Orovio, Helio. 1981. Diccionario de la Música Cubana, Havana: Editorial Letras Cubanas, p. 237. {{ISBN|959-10-0048-0}}. {{audio|Habañera.mid|Play}}]]

Most cakewalk music is notated in {{music|time|2|4}} time signature with two alternate heavy beats per bar, giving it an oompah rhythm.The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz. Revised edition, 1987. Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 14, 15. The music was adopted into the works of various composers, including Robert Russell Bennett, John Philip Sousa, Claude Debussy and Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Debussy wrote "Golliwogg's Cake-walk" as the final movement of his Children's Corner suite for piano (published 1908),{{cite book |last=Crawford |first=Richard |title=An Introduction to America's Music |year=2000 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Co. |location=New York City}} and The Little Nigar, subtitled A Cakewalk, for a piano method in 1909. The Cake Walk dance originated from the two-step, a dance which was itself spawned by the popularity of Sousa's marches.{{Cite book|last1=Haskins|first1=James|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QCIIAQAAMAAJ&q=Scott+Joplin+the+Man+Who+Made+Ragtime|title=Scott Joplin|last2=Haskins|first2=Jim|last3=Benson|first3=Kathleen|date=1978|publisher=Doubleday|isbn=978-0-385-11155-3|language=en}} Although it featured more improvisation than the two-step, it was still very formal compared to later African-American dances such as the Charleston, Black Bottom and Lindy Hop.James Haskins with Kathleen Benson, Scott Joplin the Man Who Made Ragtime, Doubleday and Company, 1978, p. 74 {{ISBN|0-385-11155-X}}.

Cakewalk music incorporated polyrhythm, syncopation, and the habanera rhythm into the regular march rhythm.{{harvnb|Baldwin|1981|p=210}}.{{cite web|url=http://www.rag-time.com/mlc/whatis/cwalk.shtml |title=Cakewalks - Early Syncopation |work=Replay.web.archive.org |date=2007-04-03 |access-date=2011-05-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070403012513/http://www.rag-time.com/mlc/whatis/cwalk.shtml |archive-date=April 3, 2007 }}

The cakewalk style eventually gave way to the creation of coon songs, which used cakewalk music and stereotypical lyrics to create musical caricatures of African American culture. Titles included "Rastus on Parade", "De Darkey Cavaliers", and "Kullud Koons' Kake Walk". These songs were "infectiously popular",{{sfn|Baldwin|1981|p=213}} and they allowed for African American musical virtuosity to be well-received at the same time as the stereotypes portrayed by the music.

Modern times

The American English term "cakewalk" was used as early as 1863 to indicate something that is very easy or effortless,{{OEtymD|cakewalk|accessdate=11 September 2012}} although this metaphor may refer to the carnival game of the same name in referring to the fact that the latter's winners obtain their prize by doing no more than walking around in a circle. Though the dance itself could be physically demanding, it was generally considered a fun, recreational pastime, covertly mocking slaveholder dance parties. The phrase "takes the cake" also comes from this practice,{{cite web |url=http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3cake1.htm |title=Cakewalk Dance |access-date=2007-04-01 |work=Streetswing Dance History Archive }}Elijah Wald, How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 30. {{ISBN|978-0-19-534154-6}}. as could "piece of cake".

One version of the cakewalk is sometimes taught, performed and included in competitions within the Scottish-inspired Highland dance community, especially in the southern United States.{{cite web |url=http://www.electricscotland.com/dance/intro.htm | title=Introduction to Highland Dancing |access-date=2007-04-05 |author=Kirsty Duncan PhD |work=Electric Scotland}} In 2021, the Royal Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing ruled to remove the dance from competition on the basis that it was derogatory to persons of color.{{cite web |url=https://issuu.com/think-solutions/docs/sdta_alliance_news_mag_december20_high |website=Dance SDTA Alliance: News – Dance matters |publisher=Scottish Dance Teachers' Alliance |access-date=25 March 2021 |page=24 |date=December 2020 |title=Scottish Dance Teachers Alliance December 2020 }}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

A version of the cakewalk seen in vintage film clips from the early 1900s is kept alive in the Lindy Hop community through performances by the Hot Shots and through cakewalk classes held in conjunction with Lindy Hop classes and workshops.

Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien perform a cakewalk in the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis.

On April 26, 2025, college football player Shedeur Sanders celebrated his selection in the 5th round of the NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns by performing a cakewalk on live TV.

Fairground ride

File:Coney island, the "Cake Walk" LCCN2014689271.tif in 1911.|alt=Old black and white photograph showing a fenced rectangle. In the rectangle, there are two aisles with ramps up into and down out from. About 8 people walk on the aisle closer to the viewer with their backs turned to the viewer. About 9 people walk in the opposite direction on the other rail. People are men, women and kids. All hold to the railing around the aisles. The ride is labelled "THE CAKE WALK" on one side and "C A K E W A L K" on another. Behind, a two-story ride labelled "THE WITCHING WAVE" and another probably labelled "SINKING OF THE MAINE". On the top left the photograph is labelled "CONEY ISLAND - THE "CAKE WALK"".]]

The original cakewalk dance inspired a fairground ride. The ride consists of two sides, customers walk along one side, around the end and back down the other. Each side has a central bridge mounted on cranks which give it an up and down motion as well as to and fro. On each end of the bridge section is a gangway and sliding platform.{{cite web|author=National Fairground and Circus Archive|title=History of Fairground Rides|website=The University of Sheffield|date=2020|access-date=23 October 2020|url=https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/nfca/researchandarticles/fairgroundrides}} The British rides were often given an American name such as "Old Tyme Brooklyn Cakewalk" or "American Cakewalk" or variations thereon.{{cite web|author=Carousel Roundabouts|date=10 November 2009|title=American Cakewalk|website=Carousel Roundabouts|access-date=23 October 2020|url=http://www.carouselroundabouts.co.uk/cakewalk.html}}

The first cakewalk ride is believed to have been built by Plimson and Taylor in 1895. Traditional cakewalks had an organ attached and on some of them if the organ sped up the walk also sped up. Cakewalks, or to be precise the "dancing" customers, were considered to be good spectacles, which drew in more potential customers.

Notes

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

References

  • {{Cite journal | last1 = Baldwin | first1 = Brooke|author-link1= | year = 1981 | title =The Cakewalk: A Study in Stereotype and Reality | journal = Journal of Social History | volume = 15 | number =2 | pages = 205–218 | publisher = Oxford University Press | jstor = 3787107 | doi = 10.1353/jsh/15.2.205 | issn=0022-4529}}
  • {{Cite book | isbn = 0306762196 | title =One Hundred Years of the Negro in Show Business | last1 = Fletcher | first1 = Tom | year = 1984 | orig-year = 1954 | publisher = Da Capo Press | ol = 10325447M }}
  • Gordon, Rae Beth (2009). [https://books.google.com/books?id=sDlcFE_lvgQC Dances With Darwin, 1875-1910: Vernacular Modernity in France], Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, {{ISBN|978-0-7546-5243-4}}
  • {{Cite book | isbn = 0-306-80553-7 | title = Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance | last1 = Stearns | first1 = Marshall Winslow | author-link1 = Marshall Stearns | last2 = Stearns | first2 = Jean | others = With a foreword and afterword by Brenda Bufalino | year = 1994 | orig-year = 1968 | publisher = Da Capo Press | lccn = 93040957 | url = https://archive.org/details/jazzdancestoryof00stea }}
  • {{Cite book | isbn = 0-688-18474-X | title = Blues People: Negro Music in White America | last1 = Jones | first1 = LeRoi | author-link1 = LeRoi Jones | year = 1999 | orig-year = 1963 | publisher = Harper Perennial | url = https://archive.org/details/bluespeoplenegroexp00bara }}