The Buzzard Lope is a popular southern States dance dating from the 1890s, included in

Minstrel Show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spec ...

repertoire, alongside the

cakewalk 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 Uni ...

and

juba dance The Juba dance or hambone, originally known as Pattin' Juba (Giouba, Haiti: Djouba), is an African-American style of dance that involves stomping as well as slapping and patting the arms, legs, chest, and cheeks (clapping). "Pattin' Juba" would b ...

. Ostensibly, it is a representation of "a turkey buzzard getting ready to eat a dead Mule (some report a Cow)", performed with a comic sensibility known as

hokum Hokum is a particular song type of American blues music—a humorous song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make sexual innuendos. This trope goes back to early blues recordings and is used from time to time in modern Ameri ...

. Reference is made to the dance in the penultimate line of the American blues/folk song "Johnny Brown":

Little Johnny Brown, spread your comfort down (2x) Fold one corner, Johnny Brown Fold another corner, Johnny Brown (3x) Take it to your lover, Johnny Brown (2x) Show her your motion, Johnny Brown (2x) Lope like a buzzard, Johnny Brown (2x) Give it to your lover, Johnny Brown (2x)

References

{{reflist Dances of the United States