Flappers do the “Charleston” while members of the Jenkins Orphanage Band provide the beat outside the Franklin Street institution circa 1920. In October 1923, the dance garnered national recognition after it was featured in the Broadway revue, Runnin’ Wild, an African American production that highlighted the distinctive steps set to the syncopated rhythms of James P. Johnson’s ragtime jazz and Cecil Mack’s lyrics. This music and dance combination spread rapidly through the fertile cultural climate of the decade, high-stepping across metropolitan areas in speakeasies, cabarets, and nightclubs. While the “Charleston” found fame in New York, key elements of the footwork are rooted in the Lowcountry’s Gullah community and its ring shout ceremonies. A New York World article published in the ’20s credits the dance’s conception to Charlestonians of African American descent who brought it to the Big Apple. Thus, the choreography is considered a result of the Great Migration, during which large numbers of African Americans from the South moved north in search of more opportunities. Out of this cultural intermingling, the “Charleston” was born—exemplifying diversity and freedom through exuberant bodies in motion.
