If you attend any Black family gathering—whether it’s a wedding, birthday party, or holiday celebration—you’ll find Black people rejoicing and participating in a fun line dance, all while smiling from ear to ear with loved ones. Whether it’s the Cha Cha Slide, the Electric Slide, or the “Can’t Get Enough” line dance, we have an undeniable rhythm, moving our feet in perfect harmony as though we had rehearsed a well-choreographed routine. But there’s more to our love for dancing than just fun.
From Africa to the world.
Line dancing in the Black community has deep cultural roots, beginning with African traditions and eventually making its way to enslaved individuals after their long, painful journey to the United States. According to the Jazz History Tree, these distinctive dances served as tools for worship and community building. The Ring Shout, for instance, was a counterclockwise dance performed in ceremonial worship dating back to the 1500s. As Sterling Stuckey wrote in his book, Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory & the Foundations of Black America, “the dancing and singing were directed to the ancestors and gods, the tempo and revolution of the circle quickening during the course of the movement.”
For enslaved people, the Ring Shout was more than a dance—it was a religious practice where Christianity blended with African elements. Participants moved in a circle, creating rhythm by clapping and patting their feet. One person would set the tempo by singing, with the group responding in call-and-response. Sometimes, another person would create additional rhythm by striking the floor with a wooden stick or broom. This unique form of expression not only carried spiritual significance but also helped build community, unity, and resilience.
Line dancing in New Orleans’ Congo Square gained significant fame in the mid-1800s, as it became a central gathering place for enslaved individuals every Sunday, according to podcaster and Reverend Emmett G. Price. This vibrant space allowed them to come together, and create music rooted in their traditional cultures using drums and other native instruments, as they engaged in social dancing. It was a unique opportunity to connect, share the rhythms of their indigenous lands, and preserve their cultural heritage through movement and music.
“The confluence of those rhythms and harmonies allowed them to gather in social dancing. And this is where they danced with their backs strong and straight, with their necks upright and up long,” Price explained on a June 2024 episode of his YouTube show All Rev’d Up with co-host Reverend Irene Monroe. “They would also do a lot of hip movements, and they would get down—they would kind of groove in what we now know as grinding—but it was not necessarily a hyper-sexual thing. It was a sign of vitality. It was a sign of strength and power.”
It was a form of resistance.
According to cultural expert, Nsenga K. Burton, line dancing was also a form of resistance as it served as a powerful tool helping enslaved Africans to communicate and mobilize in terms of distress.
“It was a way for them to give instructions when they were trying to do something, whether it was to escape or to organize,” Burton told CNN during an interview published March 29. “You think about [the dance] the limbo, which is actually a Caribbean form of dance, but that came out of this idea of slave ships, how tight they were and how confined they were.”
The elements of the Ring Shout and other forms of line dancing carried on into the Harlem Renaissance, as Black culture continued to evolve artistically. During this period, swing dances like the “Shim Sham” emerged, according to Lindyland. Created in 1928 at the Savoy Ballroom by Leonard Reed and Willie Bryant, this tap dance routine blended stomping, tapping, and shimmying, quickly gaining popularity. The Shim Sham became a staple of swing dance, remaining a beloved form of expression throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
As highlighted by MadameNoire, in the 1950s, “The Stroll” became another iconic dance born out of the Black community. While it initially had roots in Black culture, it gained widespread popularity after debuting on American Bandstand.
Black people would continue to innovate and create iconic line dancing over the next decade, beginning in the 1970s and 1980s. Its evolution made a major shift thanks to the rise of soul, funk, and disco music. During this time, line dancing became more mainstream, with iconic dances like “The Hustle” and “The Electric Slide,” which gained widespread popularity. The Electric Slide, in particular, became a signature dance in the Black community, synonymous with family reunions, cookouts, and club gatherings.
Line dancing gained mainstream success in the 90’s and 2000s.
As hip-hop music began to dominate the music scene in the 1990s, line dancing continued to evolve, incorporating new styles and rhythms. Songs like “The Cupid Shuffle” and “Wobble” brought line dancing to a new generation, with these dances becoming staples at parties, clubs, and weddings. These dances often feature simple steps that are easy to follow, allowing people from all walks of life to join in.
“Black culture is a collective culture,” Burton shared with CNN. “Line dancing is cool because it gives us an opportunity to connect with others, to express ourselves with others, and to collaborate on dances. It’s just another way in which we come together and express it visually. With line dancing, it doesn’t matter what political party you are. It doesn’t matter where you grew up if you went to private school, public, it doesn’t matter,” she added. “You just come together and you create. You express yourself in a way that is pleasing, that is fun and that gives you a sense of community.”
SEE ALSO:
History Of The ‘Freedom’s Journal’ The 1st African American Newspaper
The History Of Black Cowboy Fashion
Family Reunion Vibes: The Black History Of Line Dancing
was originally published on
newsone.com
