Poster, 1896
*The Cakewalk is celebrated on this date in the Registry. This couple's dance originated with Blacks in America, circa 1840.
The cakewalk originated in the Antebellum South among Black slaves. Often in the company of their masters, they used the dance as a subtle satire on the elegance of white ballroom dances. It contributed to the evolution of later American and European dances based on jazz culture and rhythms, and that musical influence on the growth of ragtime.
The Cakewalk became a popular stage act for expert dancers and a craze in fashionable ballrooms at the turn of the twentieth century. Couples formed a square with the men on the inside and, stepping high to lively music, strutted around the square. The couples were eliminated one by one by several judges, who considered the elegant bearing of the men, the women's grace, and the dancers' creativity; the last remaining pair was presented with a highly decorated cake.
