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Foxtrot
The Foxtrot is a wonderful and fun dance. The timing is 4/4 and the dance uses a myriad of slow and quick steps to create a smooth and bounce feeling in the dance. Foxtrot movement is very similar to waltz but it is not the same. Foxtrot uses a slow, quick, quick tempo to move through its box steps. So unlike the smooth look that we get in waltz, our foxtrot has a bounce to it known as lilt. We do not use fall and rise in foxtrot, rather it is rise through the foot but not through the body.
The first foxtrot was danced in the summer of 1914 by the Vaudeville actor Harry Fox. Fox was born in Pamona, California in 1882, he adopted the stage name of Fox after his grandfather.
Harry was thrown onto his own resources at the young age of 15. He joined a circus for a short time and also played as a professional baseball player for a brief stint.
In early 1914, Mr. Fox was appearing in many Vaudeville shows around New York. In April 1914 Fox teamed up with Yansci Dolly of the famous Dolly Sisters in an act of Hammerstein's. At the same time, the New York Theatre one of the largest in the World, was being converted to a movie theatre. As an added attraction, the theatre's management decided to put vaudeville shows between acts. They used Harry Fox and his company of "American Beauties" to put on a dancing act. An article in the current issue of Variety Magazine stated "Harry Fox will appear for a month or longer at a large salary with billing that will occupy the front of the theatre with electrics.
At about the same time, the roof of the theatre had been converted to a Jardin De Danse, and the Dolly Sisters played every night.
In the May 29, 1914 issue of Variety Magazine stated "The debut of Harry Fox as a lone star and the act amidst the films of the daily change of New York Theatre started off with every mark of success. The Dolly Sisters were dancing nightly on the New York Roof. Gold cups will be given away next week to the winners of dance contests on the New York Roof.
The Fox-Trot itself originated in the Jardin De Danse on the roof of the New York Theatre. As part of his act downstairs, Harry Fox was doing trotting step to ragtime music, and people referred to this dance as "Fox's-Trot".
In the rise to fame of the Vernon Castles, many ehibition dancers of outstanding talent and charm, there was no doubt that to them, Harry's Fox-Trot was the most original and exiting of their various dances.
Many of the dance elite in the world were soon trying to capture the unusual style of movement and when a very talented American, G.K. Anderson came from America to London, and with Josephine Bradly won many dance competitions, he set the seal - so to speak - on the style of the Foxtrot.