A skirt dance is a form of dance popular in Europe and America, particularly in

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

theater of the 1890s, in which women dancers would manipulate long, layered

skirt A skirt is the lower part of a dress or a separate outer garment that covers a person from the waist downwards. At its simplest, a skirt can be a draped garment made out of a single piece of fabric (such as pareos). However, most skirts are fi ...

s with their arms to create a motion of flowing fabric, often in a darkened theater with colored light projectors highlighting the patterns of their skirts. Skirts used in skirt dances reportedly were constructed from over 100 yards of fabric.

Background

The dance originated in London, as a less formal type of

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

with elements of popular dance such as

clogging Clogging is a type of folk dance practiced in the United States, in which the dancer's footwear is used percussively by striking the heel, the toe, or both against a floor or each other to create audible rhythms, usually to the downbeat with the ...

and French can-can. The dancer

Kate Vaughan Kate Vaughan (1852 – 21 February 1903) was the stage name of Catherine Alice Candelin, a British dancer and actress. She was best known for developing the skirt dance and has been called the "greatest dancer of her time".St Johnston, pp. 170� ...

is generally credited with originating it, and being its early proponent, after performing the dance as part of a Dance of the Furies at the Holborn Theatre in 1873. Vaughan had also performed

Jacques Offenbach Jacques Offenbach (, also , , ; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the Romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera '' ...

's ''

Orpheus in the Underworld ''Orpheus in the Underworld'' and ''Orpheus in Hell'' are English names for (), a comic opera with music by Jacques Offenbach and words by Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy. It was first performed as a two-act " opéra bouffon" at the Thé� ...

'' in a similar dress that year. Ballet master and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

John D'Auban Frederick John D'Auban (1842 – 15 April 1922) was an English dancer, choreographer and actor of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Famous during his lifetime as the ballet-master at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, he is best remembered as the c ...

worked with Vaughan, and taught other students including

Alice Lethbridge Alice Matilda Lethbridge (1866 – 4 February 1948) was an English music hall dancer and Gaiety Girl, best known for her "skirt dance" act. Early life Alice Matilda Lethbridge was born in Clerkenwell, the daughter of Thomas and Louisa (née Hol ...

, how to perform skirt dances. The dance soon became popular at the Gaiety Theatre in London, where it was routinely performed by the theatre's

chorus line A chorus line is a large group of dancers who together perform synchronized routines, usually in musical theatre. Sometimes, singing is also performed. Chorus line dancers in Broadway musicals and revues have been referred to by slang terms su ...

, the "Gaiety Girls".

References

{{Authority control Concert dance Dance in England Novelty and fad dances