Black bottom

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Black Bottom (disambiguation) .

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Black bottom
Type:	Couple dance
Music:	Swing , blues
Time signature :	4/4 time
Origin:	United States
Creation time:	1920s
List of dances

Black Bottom ( "black ass" ) is an American ballroom dancing the twenties of the 20th century.

The Black Bottom developed from Charleston in the Afro-American population of the United States . The year of origin is 1926. In this year Ray Henderson wrote his jazz standard of the same name.

The Black Bottom was danced to jazz music in syncopated four-four time . Characteristic are stomping steps, strong forward and backward movements of the pelvis and, above all, the stretching out and bumping into each other ( bump ) of the buttocks - which gave the dance its name. A well-known interpreter of Black Bottom numbers is Ma Rainey , to whom the playwright August Wilson dedicated the play "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" in 1984.

With its overt sexual symbolism, the black bottom was considered provocative and offensive. It only survived as a fashion dance for a short time.