Dancing – I Don't Get It

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I know what you’re thinking.

#extra

In fairness, these Aborigines were all gussied up for the corroborree (lively social gathering), where they had plans to perform a “wild duck dance” wearing said grass and feather head ornaments.

They don’t look too thrilled about the pending festivities. Personally, I wouldn’t chance the neck pain or misalignment of the spine that such weight could cause. And that’s why I don’t get invited to corroborrees.

I Don’t Know What To Do With My Feet

Dorothy Berry and Marcel Frost, Dec ’46, Jayhawker

Halitosis In Extremis

No, it wasn’t bad breath that caused Marie Micholowsky to pass clean out in her brother Frank’s arms. Believe it or not, this image was snapped at HOUR 3327 into a Chicago dance marathon. The seated woman shares my sentiment exactly. Girl, what were you thinking?

Now most of us have heard of dance marathons, especially popular during the 20s and 30s. But did you know that some lasted for weeks, even months? This particular one began on August 29, 1930 and ended in 1931. And yes, they did get intervals in which to nap. But can you imagine having started dancing TWO WEEKS AGO, only to ultimately finish next January? I guess these couples didn’t have jobs? Or families?

This next pair had the benefit of not being siblings in embrace, but you can see the pickle petite Anna Lawanick is in, having to support slumbering Jack Ritof, aka the failure.

Library of Congress/Corbis via Getty Images

What had begun as opportunities for the glow of youth to show its endurance and immortality eventually morphed into the exploitation of those who desperately needed the cash reward given to the last couple standing. As you can see, the onlookers (who paid an entrance fee to gawk) kept their eyes on the dance floor.

But what of the pain in their feet? Rules often allowed for one partner to visit the restroom or nap as long as the other partner continued dancing, so the feet were only briefly spared their dancing duties. The contestants below received medical attention for their tootsies during a Madison Square Garden marathon in June of 1928, where the prize was $5000, more than an average annual income.

Spectacle it was, as folks pushed themselves past the point of exhaustion, and in the case of Homer Morehouse, heart failure at the age of 27.

The predecessor to today’s reality shows or movies like Hands On A Hard Body, dance marathons proved both cruel and entertaining. Ultimately, the fad passed as fads do, and Americans moved on to the next big thing.

There’s A Heartbreak Beat, Playing All Night Long

Okay, y’all, there’s a lot to deal with here. First off, it says Motilde to me. That’s what my eyes see. But her name was Clotilde von Derp, an expressionist dancer who married another dancer but refused to take his name of Sakharoff. I would have taken that over Derp any day, but this was before derp was a thing.

If you ask anyone under 40 what a derp is, they’ll most likely think of this, which is a word for foolishness or stupidity.

But von Derp it was. And really, that’s just her pretend stage name. Her legit name was Clotilde Margarete Anna Edle von der Planitz. That’s a lot to embroider. Photographer Rudolph Duhrkoop took the pic in 1913.

Couldn’t you just fall into the heart patterns of her dress?