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'Blues dancing' is a modern term used to describe the family of historical dances that developed in response to blues music, or the contemporary dances that draw on their tradition.

As with Blues music, blues dancing finds its origins in West Africa¹. As with lindy hop, blues dances emerged as a hybrid combination of West African rhythms and music and European partner dancing structures. In illustration, the Strut - a 19th century dance step - became the basis of the Cake walk².

Early blues dances were very simple and allowed for a wide variety musical interpretation while still staying true to black aesthetics of movement and dance. They were often a simple one-step or two-step and never became a focus for white America in the way that dances such as Lindy Hop and Charleston have done. As a result, an 'authentic' blues dance tradition has continued within African American communities³.

The spectrum of blues music is large, and consequently there are as many different forms, interpretations, and styles of traditional blues dance as their are music. "The Gut-Bucket," "The Fish Tail," "Struttin'" and "The Slow Drag" are only a few of the dances that have travelled through with blues music.

A common perception within contemporary swing dance culture is that a blues dance must be slow, sensual, and intense. Yet, as with blues music, blues dancing may reflect loneliness, longing, sadness, anger and joy, as well as love, lust, and bawdiness, ranging across tempos and musical styles. Blues music is about sharing common experiences. It is a sharing of human conditions that is accessible to all, at some level, and a blues dance can include the entire spectrum of human emotions⁴.

Traditional blues dances have been gradually introduced to contemporary swing dance culture, some expanded or adapted to suit the needs and interests of contemporary dancers, and new dances created in the same tradition. A freestyle form of partnered blues dancing has slowly developed in response to this process of rediscovery and popularization of historic blues dance forms. Based on Lindy Hop principles and aesthetics, and still positioned within the lindy hop or swing dance community, these new blues traditions combine elements of West Coast Swing, Foxtrot, Argentine Tango, and general club dancing. Its growth has, arguably, been largely a result of the lack of established moves or basic steps which has facilitates learning, as well blues dancings' natural complement to the emotive and physical excess of lindy hop.

The revival of Lindy Hop in the 1980s and 1990s has prompted complementary interests in other dances from African American Vernacular dance traditions of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. American lindy exchanges, with their emphasis on twenty-four hour programs of dance events, saw the introduction of 'blues dancing' and music in the late 1990s. Blues music started being played during after-hours dances, which eventually led to dancers patronising blues music clubs and holding house parties that played a varying amounts of blues and blues rooted music. In the late 1980s the Herrang dance camp began featuring an all-night blues dancing party on Wednesday nights, in some quarters regarded as an opportunity to secure sexual partners, but increasingly becoming a creative and social dance practice in its own right. In the context of Herrang, and throughout the historically-minded culture of contemporary swing dancing, it was almost a natural consequence that blues dancing attracted the interest of dance historians and researchers. There are now blues dancing communities throughout the international swing dancing community, thought local communities vary, reflecting local social and cultural values and contexts. The spread of blues dancing has been largely a result of individual dancers travelling between local communities and establashing blues scenes, individual teachers holding blues dance workshops in different cities and countries, and through the online community of blues dancers fascilitating the spread of knowledge and music and encouraging dancers to found local blues dancing communities.

Citations

¹ Black Dance: From 1619 to Today by Lynne Fauley Emery
² Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance by Marshall Winslow Stearns
³ Jookin': The Rise of Social Dance Formations in African-American Culture by Katrina Hazzard-Gordon
⁴ All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues by Vladimir Bogdanov
⁵ Waltzing In The Dark; Digging The Africanist Presence in American Performance; The Black Dancing Body: A Geography From Coon To Cool by Brenda Dixon Gottschild

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-Blues Dance is a modern term used to describe the genre of inter-related dances that developed alongside of Blues music or contemporary dances that were spawned in the tradition of the original dances.
+'Blues dancing' is a modern term used to describe the family of historical dances that developed in response to blues music, or the contemporary dances that draw on their tradition.
-Like [[Blues music]], Blues dancing finds its origins in African rhythm and movement<sup><small>1</small></sup>. Genre emerged from the dances of West Africa blending with European folk dances. 19th century dance steps like the Strut which became the basis of the [[Cake walk]] are good examples<sup><small>2</small></sup>.
+As with [[Blues music]], blues dancing finds its origins in West Africa<sup><small>1</small></sup>. As with [[lindy hop]], blues dances emerged as a hybrid combination of West African rhythms and music and European partner dancing structures. In illustration, the [[Strut]] - a 19th century dance step - became the basis of the [[Cake walk]]<sup><small>2</small></sup>.
-Early Blues dances were very simple and allowed for a wide variety musical interpretation while still staying true to the Black Aesthetic. They were often a simple one-step or [[two-step]] and never became a focus for White America the way that dances like [[Lindy Hop]] and [[Charleston (dance)|Charleston]] did. As a result, Blues dance had retained the authenticity from its early days<sup><small>3</small></sup>.
+Early blues dances were very simple and allowed for a wide variety musical interpretation while still staying true to black aesthetics of movement and dance. They were often a simple one-step or [[two-step]] and never became a focus for white America in the way that dances such as [[Lindy Hop]] and [[Charleston (dance)|Charleston]] have done. As a result, an 'authentic' blues dance tradition has continued within  African American communities<sup><small>3</small></sup>.
-Because the spectrum of Blues music is so large, there are many different forms, interpretations, and styles of traditional Blues dance. "The Gut-Bucket," "The Fish Tail," "Struttin'" and "The [[Slow Drag]]" are only a few of the dances that history passes down with this wide variety of music.
+The spectrum of blues music is large, and consequently there are as many different forms, interpretations, and styles of traditional blues dance as their are music. "The Gut-Bucket," "The Fish Tail," "Struttin'" and "The [[Slow Drag]]" are only a few of the dances that have travelled through with blues music.
-Some people have the impression that a Blues dance must be slow, sensual, and intense. However, anyone who has listened to a fair amount of Blues music will have heard songs that are lonely, longing, sad, angry, and joyful, as well as songs that are loving, lustful, and bawdy, ranging in tempo. Blues music is about common experiences. It is a sharing of human conditions that everyone can access on some level, and a Blues dance can include the entire spectrum of human emotions<sup><small>4</small></sup>.
+A common perception within contemporary swing dance culture is that a blues dance must be slow, sensual, and intense. Yet, as with blues music, blues dancing may reflect loneliness, longing, sadness, anger and joy, as well as love, lust, and bawdiness, ranging across tempos and musical styles. Blues music is about sharing common experiences. It is a sharing of human conditions that is accessible to all, at some level, and a blues dance can include the entire spectrum of human emotions<sup><small>4</small></sup>.
+Traditional blues dances have been gradually introduced to contemporary swing dance culture, some expanded or adapted to suit the needs and interests of contemporary dancers, and new dances created in the same tradition. A freestyle form of partnered blues dancing has slowly developed in response to this process of rediscovery and popularization of historic blues dance forms. Based on Lindy Hop principles and aesthetics, and still positioned within the lindy hop or swing dance community, these new blues traditions combine elements of [[West Coast Swing]], [[Foxtrot (dance)|Foxtrot]], [[Argentine Tango]], and general club dancing. Its growth has, arguably, been largely a result of the lack of established moves or basic steps which has facilitates learning, as well blues dancings' natural complement to the emotive and physical excess of lindy hop.
+The revival of Lindy Hop in the [[1980s]] and [[1990s]] has prompted complementary interests in other dances from [[African American Vernacular dance]] traditions of the [[1920s]], [[1930s]] and [[1940s]]. American [[lindy exchanges]], with their emphasis on twenty-four hour programs of dance events, saw the introduction of 'blues dancing' and music in the late 1990s. Blues music started being played during after-hours dances, which eventually led to dancers patronising blues music clubs and holding house parties that played a varying amounts of blues and blues rooted music. In the late 1980s the [[Herrang]] dance camp began featuring an all-night blues dancing party on Wednesday nights, in some quarters regarded as an opportunity to secure sexual partners, but increasingly becoming a creative and social dance practice in its own right. In the context of Herrang, and throughout the historically-minded culture of contemporary swing dancing, it was almost a natural consequence that blues dancing attracted the interest of dance historians and researchers.
+There are now blues dancing communities throughout the international swing dancing community, thought local communities vary, reflecting local social and cultural values and contexts. The spread of blues dancing has been largely a result of individual dancers travelling between local communities and establashing blues scenes, individual teachers holding blues dance workshops in different cities and countries, and through the online community of blues dancers fascilitating the spread of knowledge and music and encouraging dancers to found local blues dancing communities.
-With the resurgence of the Lindy Hop in the 90's, there was a renewed interest in other dances from the same time period and culture. Blues music started being played during after-hours dances at [[Lindy exchange|Lindy Exchanges]], which eventually led to migrations of dancers to Blues clubs and house parties that played a varying amounts of Blues and Blues rooted music. It was only natural that some of the more dedicated and historically minded dancers started to look at the dances that were originally done to this music.
-The traditional Blues dances started to resurface, some were expanded, some were changed, and new dances were spawned in the same tradition. Alongside this trend of rediscovery and popularization a freestyle form of partner dancing slowly grew. Based on Lindy Hop principles, but mixed with elements of [[West Coast Swing]], [[Foxtrot (dance)|Foxtrot]], [[Argentine Tango]], and general club dancing, it grew rapidly in popularity with its low learning curve, due to its lack of established moves or basic step. In this way it shares a lot of similarity to dances like [[Modern Jive]]. This style of slow dancing does not bear most of the Africanist elements that define Blues dances and therefor does not qualify from an academic, historical, or cultural stand point as Blues dancing<sup><small>5</small></sup>, though it is an interesting and intriguing interpretation of emotionally intense music, where the melody and harmonies are given precedence over rhythms.
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