The Animal Dance craze was directly related with the popularity of

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott J ...

music (improvisational melodies with syncopated beats, from

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 ensl ...

traditions). There were an endless varieties of animal dance fads, such as: Horse Trot, Kangaroo Hop, Duck Waddle, Squirrel,

Chicken Scratch Chicken scratch (also known as waila music) is a kind of dance music developed by the Tohono O'odham people. The genre evolved out of acoustic fiddle bands in southern Arizona, in the Sonoran desert. These bands began playing European and Mexica ...

, Turkey Trot, and Grizzly Bear. The general idea of these dances was that dancing couples were supposed to imitate with their own movements the movements of various animals after which the dances were named. Both music and dance reflected the vibrancy of modern, urban influences. The music is typified by Scott Joplin’s rags and made popular to the middle class by "

Alexander's Ragtime Band "Alexander's Ragtime Band" is a Tin Pan Alley song by American composer Irving Berlin released in 1911 and is often inaccurately cited as his first global hit. Despite its title, the song is a march as opposed to a rag and contains little sync ...

,” published in 1911. The dances incorporated in the Animal Craze are parts of the Jazz Age of the 1920s.

References

Social dance Novelty and fad dances {{Dance-stub