Honoring the Chorus Girls of the Past Part 1

As a modern chorus troupe, it is our duty to honor the history of the chorus girl tradition. Created by BIPOC women during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, chorus dancing was performed largely at segregated clubs as a solo or group artform based in the methods of Solo Charleston and African dance.

The most well-remembered chorus troupe of this time – Ziegfield Follies – was stolen from a black performance group called the Darktown Follies. Founders Florenz Ziegfield and George White bought three of the most popular routines from the show and recast it in 1914 edition with only white dancers and swiftly became a huge success. Ziegfeld has since been credited with creating the chorus girl and both men went on to open popular dance studios claiming to specialize in training chorus girls, which were exclusively for white women. They hired the chorus girls from the wildly successful but incredibly problematic and offensive Broadway musical ‘Shuffle Along’ to teach at those studios though those dancers were gate kept from fame themselves.

Through the 20s and 30s hunger for novelty dances from white audiences grew, leading to the continuation of appropriation of black social dances, vernacular movement and musical theatre by white dancers. Very few of the original dancers of color and Black dancers gained popularity or fame, and many of those who did had to present as white as possible.

Source - RACE AND GENDER IN THE BROADWAY CHORUS by Kellee Rene Van Aken

Written by: Amanda Bernice

Edited by: Ariel Lacey