Eccentric dance is a style of dance performance in which the moves are unconventional and individualistic. It developed as a genre in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a result of the influence ofAfrican and exotic dancers on the traditional styles ofclog andtap dancing. Instead of holding the body stiff and straight in the style of ajig,acrobatics such as flips and contortions were used in a more exuberant, expressive and idiosyncratic way.^[2]

The style was used in stage performances such asminstrel shows,music hall orvaudeville.^[3][4] Dance styles which used eccentric moves and encouraged improvisation, such as theCharleston, became popular crazes in the 1920s. It was used in movies to providecomic relief.^[5]

Early distinctive forms of eccentric dancing had names likerubber legs orlegmania.^[6] Rubberlegging involved leg shaking or snaking which later evolved intoShag and the showcase style ofElvis Presley, while legmania added leaps and kicks in the air. An example of legmania isRay Bolger's performance as theScarecrow singing "If I Only Had a Brain" inThe Wizard of Oz.^[7]

Joel Schechter describes eccentric dance as the "vaudevillian impulse to dance like crazy, even if the legs do not agree with the upper torso, or the music, about which way to go."^[8]Marshall Winslow Stearns defines it as follows:

The term "eccentric" is a catchall for dancers who have their own non-standard movements and sell themselves on their individual styles. It has been used to describe a variety of highly personal performances by dancer-comedians on Broadway. Thus,George M. Cohan,Leon Errol,Joe Frisco,George White,Harland Dixon,Jack Donahue,James Barton,Tom Patricola,Hal Leroy,Buddy Ebsen, andRay Bolger have all been labeled eccentric dancers at one time or another, although some are much more than that, and James Barton, for example, used eccentric movements along with a wealth of other and perhaps finer steps.^[3]

• Character dance
• Grotesque dance
• Street dance

Notes

Further reading

• Harker, Brian (2008). "Louis Armstrong, Eccentric Dance, and the Evolution of Jazz on the Eve of Swing".Journal of the American Musicological Society.61 (1). University of California Press:67–121.doi:10.1525/jams.2008.61.1.67.JSTOR 10.1525/jams.2008.61.1.67.
• Wilkie, Ian (2017)."Funny walking: the rise, fall and rise of the Anglo-American comic eccentric dancer"(PDF).Comedy Studies.8 (2):182–196.doi:10.1080/2040610X.2017.1343971.S2CID 192962012.

• Free and improvised dance
• Eccentric dancers
• Eccentricity (behavior)

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