One of the dances that is often discussed as a precursor to Charleston, lindy hop and many other dance styles is the Cakewalk. The Cakewalk was a dance originally created by enslaved African-Americans on plantations as a form of entertainment practiced amongst themselves which poked fun at white plantation culture and the dances they saw white folks doing at parties. When white plantation owners took notice of the phenomenon they found the comedic dance very entertaining and encouraged the practice by holding competitions, joining in as judges and offering a prize (often a cake) for the best dancers.

Later Cakewalk became a mainstay of minstrel shows. These were variety shows that were extremely popular during the mid-late 1800s. They often glorified plantation life featuring white performers in blackface performing ridiculous caricatures of African-Americans. Around 1900 the Cakewalk featured in a couple of Broadway musicals but this time performed by Black dancers without the lampooning. In these production dancers were able to demonstrate the creativity and showmanship they could bring to the stage performing this unique dance style authentically for an appreciative audience and Cakewalk became popular all over the world, from Paris to Argentina. Famous Cakewalk dancers toured to Europe. Dance schools taught Cakewalk classes. Cakewalk music became a popular style of music.

“If the cakewalk is a Negro dance caricaturing certain white customs, what is that dance, when, say, a white theater company attempts to satirize it as a Negro dance? I find the idea of white minstrels in blackface satirizing a dance satirizing a dance satirizing themselves a remarkable kind of irony—which, I suppose, is the whole point of minstrel shows.” — Amiri Baraka, Blues People

Further reading

A recreation of the Cakewalk by Leon James, Al Minns, Pepsi Bethel for The Spirit Moves