The Great Gatsby and Charleston, a love story?

An extremely rich man organizing the craziest parties in order to seduce again his first love: “Easy, that’s Gatsby”.

Strass, crop and flappers: “No doubt, it is the Charleston” you think.

Reading those words, already, you imagine some hot jazz music that makes you want to wiggle like Josephine Baker.

Closing your eyes, you nearly see fringe, sequins, feather dresses and light-coloured suits with their matching suspenders, waistcoats and hats.

You inevitably think about the flapper girls in mini-dress and crop hairstyle, swaying to the heady rythm of Hot Jazz. Let the party begins!

Those thought are not completely false. Nor completely true, actually.

Beware, today we are debunking some myths. Gone, the stereotype of the Charleston dancer in a tight dress, holding Gatsby’s arm?

I propose you to (re)read together the novel The Great Gatsby. We’ll see how dancing was done at the hottest parties in West Egg, Long Island. What better source for studying 1920s dance than the book that reflects this golden era in the collective imagination?

Contrary to one may think, there are very few references to dancing in The Great Gatsby. It’s because Fitzgerald’s vibrant writing style focuses more on the movre, the colours, the feelings, than on factual depictions.

I would therefore like to transcribe for you all of the extracts from the book which evoke dance: there are four of them. For each extract, I will give a word of explanation and context.

But first, some useful information about the novel.

Being a French native speaker, I write in English as good as I can. Please let me know if you sot any error. thank you!

The writer and his work

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) only completed four novels. However he is considered as one of the major American authors of the 20th century. He is best known for illustrating the flamboyance of the Roaring Twenties through his book The Great Gatsby.

During WW1, Fitzgerald joined an army training camp. There he met Zelda Sayre, and married her in 1920. It was the beginning of a tormented relationship between the author and “the first American flapper,” as Fitzgerald nicknamed Zelda.

Fitzgerald and his spouse are part of the “Lost Generation”, a group of American expats in 1920s Paris. These artists include Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms), Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) and dancer Isadora Duncan.

The Fitzgeralds, as many wealthy American, regularly go to the French Riviera to escape Prohibition. There, they tasted the pleasures of the Roaring Twenties: splendid parties, abundant alcohol, frenetic dancing. The rest of the time, the couple resides on Long Island, surrounded by the nouveaux riches.

The experience of unleashed parties of the French Riviera and the association with the Long Island nouveaux riches will deeply influence The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald’s seminal novel.

Writing, publishing, reception… a long development

Fitzgerald begins the writing of The Great Gatsby in June 1922. The writing process is arduous, and many times stopped by pecuniary and family issues. It was therefore only in 1925 that the novel was published.

The novel is a failure: less than 20 000 copies are sold, while 75 000 were expected. Reviews are mixed. The readers are disappointed: they consider the book less good as the previous ones.

It was not until Fitzgerald’s death in the 1940s that the novel was finally recognized.  In 2013, more than 25 million copies were sold worldwide.

The year 1922 and Long Island

The Great Gatsby is inspired by the experience of Fitzgerald and Sayre in Long Island. At the time, they lived in Great Neck, a town populated by celebrities and new money people. Great Neck will become “West Egg”, the fictive district where Jay Gatsby lives.

On the other side of Long Island is Port Washington, the traditional residence of old money families. Port Washington will become “East Egg,” the fictional neighborhood where Daisy Buchanan lives.

The novel takes place in Autumn 1922. We’ll see how the story is settled in that precise year.

A quick summary of The Great Gastby

Come on, let’s go! We dive back into the story before reading extracts from The Great Gatsby together.

Young Nick Carraway – the narrator, newly arrived in New York, discovers his mysterious neighbor: Jay Gatsby. This extremely wealthy man organizes weekly a crazy party of luxury and excess. Rumors are rife around him.

Nick also hangs out with his cousin Daisy, and her husband Tom. Both are from old money families. The couple is not doing well: the spouses do not get along. Tom has a mistress, Myrtle, and Daisy knows about the relation (the atmosphere is not the greatest, to say the less). Nick only hangs out with this precarious couple to enjoy the company of the beautiful and independant-minded Jordan Baker.

Gastby becomes close to Nick, because he has an idea in mind… to win back his former childhood sweetheart, who is none other than Daisy.

The Great Gatsby, excerpt no. 1 : solo dancing

In the chapter III of The Great Gatsby, Nick describes the parties given by Jay Gastby. There are only colors, movements, dazzling sounds, the echoes of which reach the narrator’s shack.

It evokes women who flit from group to group, capture attention and leave immediately “excited with triumph”:

Suddenly one of these gypsies, in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps it down for courage and, moving her hands like Frisco, dances out alone on the canvas platform. A momentary hush; the orchestra leader varies his rhythm obligingly for her, and there is a burst of chatter as the erroneous news goes around that she is Gilda Gray’s understudy from the Follies. The party has begun.

Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925, chapter III.

I will decode for you some essential elements to properly understand the text.

Moving her hands like Frisco

Let’s start with “Frisco,” the nickname for the city of San Francisco.

But if Frisco is a city, how can anyone “move their hands” like it? This expression refers to the earthquakes which regularly affect the city. Notably the earthquake of 1906, which destroyed around 80% of the city.

You may find the reference taste questionable, but it’s a fairly common comparison. As early as 1908, in San Francisco itself, a publisher published a dance entitled The Quake. This choreography is expressly dedicated to the city.

Fitzgerald therefore also evokes the earthquakes which characterize San Francisco, and compares them to the undulations of the dancer.

Gilda Gray

Who is that Gilda Gray ?

American dancer of Polish origin, Gilda Gray (1901-1959) is famous for popularizing the shimmy. She performed in 1922 at the Ziegfield Follies, the popular cabaret of the 1920s and 1930s. The shimmy is characterized by a rapid movement of the shoulders, giving a trembling effect to the whole body.

Based on this information, Gilday Gray and the Shake worthy of San Francisco the identification of this “gypsy” dance is obvious: it is the shimmy.

Note that not everyone dances the Shimmy: in this excerpt, only a few eccentric women dance it – those who like to be the center of attention, the flappers.

We also know that Shimmy is also practiced as a couple. It then looks a lot like a foxtrot, enhanced with a characteristic shake of the shoulders.

The Great Gatsby, excerpt no. 2: couple dancing

A few pages later, we read a new description of dance, in couple this time.

“There was dancing now on the canvas in the garden; old men pushing young girls backward in eternal graceless circles, superior couples holding each other tortuously, fashionably, and keeping in the corners—and a great number of single girls dancing individually or relieving the orchestra for a moment of the burden of the banjo or the traps.“

Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925, chapter III.

The man pushing his partner in front of him, that is the “back the lady” figure, one of the basic figure in one-step and foxtrot.

The one-step had its heyday in the early 1910s, just before the First World War. Officially, no one longer danced the one-step after the First World War: too joyful, too simple, too old-fashioned (the dance is not 10 years old!).

However, many continue to dance it, while calling it foxtrot, as the more fashionable dance. It’s all beneficial: one can continue to dance the very simple steps of the one-step, while pretending to follow the latest fashion that ignites the dance floor.

The foxtrot was born around 1914. It barely had time to make a name for itself when the war broke out, emptying the dance halls at the same time. As a result, the foxtrot was able to come back in force in 1918 and escape the “old look” that crippled the other dances from before the war.

It is therefore probably the foxtrot that the author is talking about here. The foxtrot allows a lot of fantasies in the steps and positions of the dancers, as indicated “holding each other tortuously, fashionably“. The excerpt ends with a new allusion to Shimmy, or at least to a solo performance

Excerpt no. 3 : Daisy and Gatsby dancing

The following dance scene takes place in Chapter VI, when Daisy and Gatsby are finally reunited:

« Daisy and Gatsby danced. I remember being surprised by his graceful, conservative fox-trot—I had never seen him dance before. »

Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925, chapter VI.

Finally, Fitzgerald mentions a dance name (we’re on page 122, it’s about time!). The name of the dance cited here leads me to think that it was indeed a foxtrot that was described in the previous excerpt. The contrast between the mismatched (old men / young girls) and graceless couples is even greater compared to the graceful couple Daisy / Gatsby, dancing a conservative foxtrot.

Excerpt no 4 : A music

Finally, the last passage also cites a dance, or more precisely a dance music:

« Her [Daisy] glance left me and sought the lighted top of the steps, where ‘Three o’clock in the Morning’, a neat, sad little waltz of that year, was drifting out the open door.»

Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925, chapter VI.

Three o’Clock in the morning is a melody composed in 1919 by Juliàn Robledo, in New Orleans. Dorothy Terriss added lyrics to it a little later. The song achieved phenomenal success in 1922, when Paul Whiteman recorded his own version (to listen here). The lyrics evoque regret that the evening ends, perfectly reflecting Daisy’s state of mind at that moment in the plot.

A waltz in the Roaring Twenties? Yes. We still danced the waltz after the First World War, but the style has evolved a lot. The most striking feature is that the couple almost no longer turns on itself, probably under the influence of the one-step. The dancers use a box-step, describing a sort of square on the ground, in a swinging movement back and forth. This type of waltz is very close to what we see today in sports dance.

And what about Charleston?

Well yes, The Great Gastby = Charleston. Right ?

Well… No. Sorry, these are the only clips related to dancing in The Great Gatsby.

As I already perceive a hint of frustration rising in you, I will give you some explanations. Something to shine in society, during a wine-and-cheese evening, for example.

The Charleston was created in 1923 by choreographer Lyda Webb, as part of the musical Runnin’ Wild.

On stage, the Charleston was dances to the song of the same name, composed by James P. Johnson, words by Cecil Mack. The lyrics allude to the city of Charleston, South Carolina.

The Charleston became very popular between 1923 and 1925. It was a fashion that did not last. In comparison, the foxtrot and tango were present throughout the 1920s and beyond.

Although often and heavily criticized, the Charleston enjoyed short but massive success. In Europe, it was popularized by Josephine Baker in 1925, when she performed in Paris with the « Revue nègre ».

The Charleston was therefore born in 1923. However, you will remember that the action of the novel The Great Gatsby takes place in the summer of 1922. So, the answer to the question “Why don’t we talk about the Charleston in The Great Gatsby ”, the answer is quite simply: “Because the Charleston did not exist in 1922”.

Conclusion

Ultimately, what do we learn about dancing in the novel The Great Gatsby?

Scott Fitzgerald manages to anchor his story in a specific era – the 1920s –, by describing fairly precisely the dancing habits of his time. Foxtrot and one-step, Shimmy, Waltz, main dances of his era are present.

We can even go so far as to speak of a strong anchoring in a specific year: 1922. All the references to dance bring us back to this year: Gilda Gray at the Ziegfield Follies, the popular success of Three o’clock in the morning, and even the absence of reference to the Charleston. The Charleston makes no appearance in the novel, as it was created in 1923, a year after the events depicted in the book.

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