The juke joint and the dance hall

What it is

A juke joint had a floor of bare boards, a piano or a guitarist, later a jukebox, and food and drink sold from the back. People came on Saturday night after a week of field or mill work. The dancing was close and low to the ground: the slow drag, and many solo steps with names that changed from county to county. City ballrooms such as the Savoy in Harlem had sprung floors, two bandstands and room for thousands, and there the Lindy Hop took shape.

Where it comes from

Juke joints appeared after emancipation, when Black Southerners were shut out of white-owned bars and halls by segregation. The word is often traced to joog, a term in the Gullah language of the Carolina and Georgia coast meaning rowdy or disorderly, though the origin is not certain. The writer Zora Neale Hurston described the jook in the 1930s as the source of the blues and of much Black social dance. When millions moved north, they carried the music and the steps with them.

How it works

Music and dance fed each other. A musician played to keep the floor full, stretched a song when the dancers were with it and changed it when they were not. Dancers answered with new steps, and a step that worked in one town was copied in the next. A few old juke joints still open in the Mississippi Delta, and blues festivals bring visitors to them. The dances live on in blues and swing scenes around the world.

If you go

1. In the Mississippi Delta, ask locally which juke joints are open. Hours are irregular.
2. Pay the cover charge at the door and buy a drink. That is what keeps the place going.
3. Listen first. The room is small and the band is close.
4. To learn the dances, look for a blues or Lindy Hop class in your own city.

Good manners

• You are a guest in a community space. Greet people and take your lead from the regulars.
• Ask before photographing musicians or dancers.
• Tip the band.

What is danced

Slow dragAn intimate American couples dance swaying to ragtime and blues musicBlues danceA family of historical partner dances from the United States, danced to blues music with a grounded and improvisational CharlestonA fast-paced dance with kicks and twists, first popular in 1920s AmericaBlack BottomA lively solo or couple dance from the 1920s Jazz Age, rooted in African American communitiesJitterbugA lively partner dance with fast footwork and spins, rooted in swing music

Also part of it, and being written: Lindy Hop.

Sources and further reading

• Juke joint on Wikipedia