Blues
The Blues: A dance from the soul
The Blues is spiritual music. In no other dance religion plays such an important role. Whoever sings the Blues sings from their heart, whatever moves them. Because of this, in North America the Blues is considered as church music by Afro-Americans; their reverend preaches with the Blues; it is full of melancholy, longing, sometimes also full of humour and mockery. The Blues culturally deals with enslavement and exploitation by white land owners, which have been going on for centuries.
The detailed history of Blues
The Blues developed in 18th century USA on the cotton plantations, where African-Americans had to carry out slave work. The slaves were singing monotonous rhythms, which was also important for safety reasons. With their uniform, trained movements to the rhythm of the music they avoided accidents, the songs made the monotonous work easier - or they were just passing time. In their songs they hoped for better times, times in which they would not be oppressed any more. Little by little slavery was abolished after the American Civil War; African-Americans, however, were still oppressed and excluded until far into the 20th century.
Towards the end of the 19th century the Blues slowly found its way into American shows, variety shows and bars. Around 1920 the first songs by black Blues-singers were published on record. This was the beginning of commercialization of Blues-music. After a short period these records led to a real Blues-boom, which found its first peak, especially in Chicago, between 1927 and 1929. In the beginning, mainly the black population were the main followers of black Blues-music. During the time shortly after the First World War the Blues finally came to Europe.
The characteristic of the Blues is hidden on a musical level, in the so-called Blues-tonality. Blues must always be slow and appear sad; it does not know major or minor. A special third makes the Blues to what it is – music of African origin. The African scale is pentatonic and has only five tones as opposed to the western twelve tone music. The Blues-third and the Blues-seventh, i.e. the third and the seventh step, fluctuate between major and minor. For this reason Blues-pianists strike both thirds at the same time; this way they always achieve the undefined tone of the Blues-singer. This is the famous “Blue Note”, which makes this music so intensive and unique.
The classic Blues has an exactly predetermined poetic form and consists of verses of three lines, with each line consisting of four beats. Therefore, a verse consists of three times four beats. In most cases the second line repeats the first line. The third line, just like in rule of three, brings the conclusion of the thought. Luis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday are the
people, who made this style of singing world-famous.
In general, European singers in the early twenties were not able to sing Blues-notes. Back then, especially the slow pace of the Blues was seen as unique. However, there was no dance to this slow tempo; therefore the Blues-dance was artificially created. The English dance teacher Moore undertook to choreograph this new dance, thereby completely dispensing with broad movement. In 1923 the first Blues-ball was held in England. The Blues was even tried as a ballroom dance, but was completely displaced by the Slow Foxtrot. From 1927, the so-called ‘Cecile-Blues’, created by the Englishman Cecil Taylor, came into fashion. Another variety, the ‘Yale-Blues’ developed in the same year. At the Great Conference in 1929 the Blues finally took over the Quickstep’s basic step, the ‘Cross Chasse’, which is the basic step of the Blues to this day. The ‘Three Step’ in Swing and Boogie-woogie later developed from this basic step. The Great Conference of 1929 did not yet know right- or left-turns. These figures, however, are today not used any more.
Blues-dancers nowadays enjoy a large degree of liberty. The Blues is a quiet dance with soft movements and slinking steps, which are very similar to the Foxtrot. For this reason the Blues is often mistaken for the Foxtrot, especially in Germany. Another reason for this is that the Blues as a dance did not, as its music, grow historically. It is, such as Foxtrot, Slow Foxtrot and also the Quickstep a construed and artificial dance. As a dance, the Blues is a clear European invention, no folk dance, but a dance, that had to be invented, so that the couple, snuggled up, can indulge in their romantic moods. The ‘Blue Note’ is perfect for this. The Blues is especially danced to Foxtrot-music in small and overcrowded halls.
A difference regarding tempo must be made between the Blues-dance and Blues-music. Blues-music is often played very fast, while the Blues-dance is only suitable for very slow 4/4 beats. The dancers hardly move position; therefore the dance is not very rich on variations and does not show complex figures. This makes it a dance, which even occasional dancers can learn fast and without a lot of training. Not only musically, but also as a dance, the Blues is the nucleus for everything that followed it, for example the Boogie-woogie or the Rock`n´Roll. Since 1963 the Blues is part of the World Dance Program, but it is not a ballroom dance.
Rhythm
For a basic step slow – slow – fast - fast
Tempo
18 - 32 Beats/minute
(Diese Texte sowie Musik sind im Jahre 2004 exklusiv für Dance Art direct verfasst und komponiert worden und unterliegen geltendem Urheberrecht. Durch vorige Absprache mit und Einwilligung von Dance Art direct dürfen diese Texte in der vorliegenden Form von Interessenten ebenfalls genutzt werden. Dance Art direct behält sich das Recht vor, diese Rechte den jeweiligen Nutzern zu entziehen. Zuwiderhandlungen in Form von unabgesprochener Nutzung der Texte, einzelner Textpassagen, Musik sowie die weitere Nutzung nach Verbot werden in Einzelfällen strafrechtlich verfolgt.)