Shingle dancing is a form of
solo dancing akin to
tap dancing
Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perfo ...
, of
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
origin, usually associated with
old-time music
Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination ...
. A shingle dancer dances on a small wooden platform (typically no more than about 30 inches square), sometimes equipped with a bell or a loose piece of metal to allow additional percussive effects.
In the early 19th century in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, African American
slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
would shingle dance for spare change on their days off.
References
* Lott, Eric. ''Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. . p. 41-43.
African-American dance
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