The Fox-trot
Invented by a Vaudeville performer Harry Fox in 1914 for audience participation at
intermission during Danse De Follies Cabaret at the Ziegfield Theater.
See the Great Ziegfield encouraged half time audiences to get up and dance.
I wonder why we don't do this today during Extravaganzas or Musicals . (They should invite the audience
up to dance and sing like a seventh inning stretch in Baseball. )
Anyway the story goes Harry Fox did a small tap step on the roof of the theater. The audience would copy him
and go wild. And so was born the Fox-trot
The Foxtrot is a Unphrased Dance like Argentine Tango.
But the basic pattern for American Style Dance uses 3 beats of music. So it takes 4 repetitions to reach a
new measure related starting point.
The British make it easier by counting Quick Quick Slow. ( 4 beats per measure.)
Not many people understand rhythm. I saw a funny thing on television once.
A heavy set Orson Wells once danced with a bunch of gold rated foxtrot dancers no one understood why
this one rotund guy in the middle wasn't in step with the rest of the dancers.
See the band was screwing around changing the rhythm as good musicians do. This gave the beat counters trouble.
But Orson Wells had no problem with this. He was a world class conductor at the age of 6 years old,
a music prodigy and he understood rhythm.
Lord M
