{{Short description|Type of dance}} [[File:1939 Wilson, Keppel and Betty.jpg|thumb|right|287px|The Anglo-American act of Wilson, Keppel and Betty have been acclaimed as the greatest eccentric dance act.<ref name=V&A/> Their routine had a mock Egyptian style and their dance moves included tap, soft-shoe and sand-dancing.]]
'''Eccentric dance''' is a style of dance performance in which the moves are unconventional and individualistic. It developed as a genre in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a result of the influence of African and exotic dancers on the traditional styles of clog and tap dancing. Instead of holding the body stiff and straight in the style of a jig, acrobatics such as flips and contortions were used in a more exuberant, expressive and idiosyncratic way.<ref>{{citation |title=Vaudeville Old & New: an encyclopedia of variety performances in America |volume=1 |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2004 |page=346 |chapter=Eccentric Dancing |isbn=978-0415938532}}</ref>
The style was used in stage performances such as minstrel shows, music hall or vaudeville.<ref name=jazz/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3eccnt.htm |title=Eccentric dance |access-date=2015-02-03 |publisher=Streetswing }}</ref> Dance styles which used eccentric moves and encouraged improvisation, such as the Charleston, became popular crazes in the 1920s. It was used in movies to provide comic relief.<ref>{{cite book |author=Delamater, Jerome |title=Dance in the Hollywood musical |page=83 |quote=Eccentric dancers' major contribution to film dance is that of humor. ... }}</ref>
Early distinctive forms of eccentric dancing had names like '''rubber legs''' or '''legmania'''.<ref>[https://legmania.co.uk/ "Legmania: About the Allisons", ''Legmania.co.uk'']. Retrieved 26 December 2022</ref> Rubberlegging involved leg shaking or snaking which later evolved into Shag and the showcase style of Elvis Presley, while legmania added leaps and kicks in the air. An example of legmania is Ray Bolger's performance as the Scarecrow singing "If I Only Had a Brain" in ''The Wizard of Oz''.<ref>{{citation |page=106 |title=Beginning Tap Dance |author=Lewis, Lisa |year=2013 |isbn=978-1450411981}}</ref>
Joel Schechter describes eccentric dance as the "vaudevillian impulse to dance like crazy, even if the legs do not agree with the upper torso, or the music, about which way to go."<ref>{{cite book |author=Schechter, Joel |title=The Pickle Clowns: New American Circus Comedy |date=2001 |page=37 |publisher=SIU Press |isbn=978-0-8093-2357-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=srrIxji0PvQC&pg=PA37 }}</ref> Marshall Winslow Stearns defines it as follows:
<blockquote>The term "eccentric" is a catchall for dancers who have their own non-standard movements and sell themselves on their individual styles. It has been used to describe a variety of highly personal performances by dancer-comedians on Broadway. Thus, George M. Cohan, Leon Errol, Joe Frisco, George White, Harland Dixon, Jack Donahue, James Barton, Tom Patricola, Hal Leroy, Buddy Ebsen, and Ray Bolger have all been labeled eccentric dancers at one time or another, although some are much more than that, and James Barton, for example, used eccentric movements along with a wealth of other and perhaps finer steps.<ref name=jazz>{{cite book |author=Stearns, Marshall Winslow and Stearns, Jean|title=Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance |year=1968 |publisher=Da Capo Press |page=232 |isbn=978-0-306-80553-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CGs1DDtMVL8C&pg=PA232 }}</ref> </blockquote>
==Eccentric dancers== {{colbegin}} *Joe Bennett (1889–1967)<ref>{{cite news |author=Staff |title=Joe Bennett Dies. Vaudeville Dancer |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C00E1DF163FE43BBC4A53DFBF66838C679EDE |quote=Joe Bennett, a vaudeville headliner early in the century whose specialty was eccentric dancing, died yesterday... |newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 2, 1967 |access-date=2015-02-03 }}</ref> *Tony Azito (1948–1995) *James Barton (1890–1962)<ref name=jazz/> *Ray Bolger (1904–1987)<ref name=jazz/> *George M. Cohan (1878–1942)<ref name=jazz/><ref>{{cite news |author=Cohan, George M. |title=The Stage As I Have Seen It |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0WQhAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA787 |quote=I was twelve years old when I developed my eccentric dance. ... |newspaper=Green Book Magazine |date=1915 |access-date=2015-02-06 }}</ref> *Harland Dixon<ref name=jazz/> *Jack Donahue (1888–1930)<ref name=jazz/> *Gordon Dooley (1899–1930)<ref>{{cite news |author=Staff |title=Gordon Dooley Dies. Noted in Vaudeville, Comedian and Eccentric Dancer, the Last of Three brothers, a Victim of Pneumonia |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C07E0D81739E03ABC4D51DFB766838B629EDE |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 25, 1930 |access-date=2015-01-06 }}</ref> *Buddy Ebsen (1908–2003)<ref name=jazz/> *Fred Stone<ref name=jazz/> *Leon Errol<ref name=jazz/> *Joe Frisco (1889–1958)<ref name=jazz/> *Eddie Foy, Sr. (1905–1983)<ref>{{citation |title=The First Hollywood Sound Shorts, 1926–1931 |publisher=McFarland |year=2005 |isbn=0786410302 |page=43}}</ref> *Hal Leroy (1913–1985)<ref name=jazz/> *Jack Lorimer (1883–1920)<ref>{{citation |title=The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre |page=534 |isbn=140813148X |author=Jonathan Law}}</ref> *Tom Patricola (1891–1950)<ref name=jazz/> *Hal Sherman (1897–1985)<ref name=jazz/> *George Wallace (1895–1960) *George White<ref name=jazz/> *Wilson, Keppel and Betty<ref name=V&A>{{citation |quote=Wilson, Keppel and Betty formed the greatest eccentric dance act of all time. | publisher=V&A |title=Wilson, Keppel and Betty |url=http://www.vam.ac.uk/users/node/8349}}</ref><ref name=WKSB>{{citation |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017528q |publisher=BBC |quote=Wilson, Keppel and Betty formed one of the greatest eccentric dance acts of all time |author=Windsor, Barbara |title=Wilson, Keppel and Several Bettys |date=17 Nov 2011}}</ref> {{colend}}
==See also== *Character dance *Grotesque dance *Street dance
==References== '''Notes''' {{reflist}}
'''Further reading''' *{{cite journal |title=Louis Armstrong, Eccentric Dance, and the Evolution of Jazz on the Eve of Swing |first1=Brian|last1= Harker |journal=Journal of the American Musicological Society |volume= 61 |number=1 |year=2008 |pages=67–121 |publisher=University of California Press |jstor=10.1525/jams.2008.61.1.67 |doi=10.1525/jams.2008.61.1.67}} * {{cite journal |last1=Wilkie |first1=Ian |title=Funny walking: the rise, fall and rise of the Anglo-American comic eccentric dancer |journal=Comedy Studies |date=2017 |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=182–196 |doi=10.1080/2040610X.2017.1343971|s2cid=192962012 |url=https://salford-repository.worktribe.com/output/1389817/funny-walking-the-rise-fall-and-rise-of-the-anglo-american-comic-eccentric-dancer }}
Category:Free and improvised dance Category:Eccentric dancers Category:Eccentricity (behavior)