Where We Danced

The story of American Social Dance

Overview

“Where We Danced” is the first in a three-part series that chronicles the evolution of American social dance. It tells the story of America’s dance through the lives of the dancers who shaped the art form as well as the places they danced. The story begins on the plantations where African and Western European culture collided to create America’s first truly indigenous social dance, the cakewalk. It continues through to 1930’s Harlem showing how dance helped shape popular culture in America and around the world. Over the decades dance has set trends in fashion and sexuality, giving the youth of the 20th century a voice to define itself from the rigidness of the Victorian era . It also gave African-Americans a means of expression when all others had been taken away.