Modern Moves: Dancing Race during the Ragtime and Jazz Eras 1st Edition by Danielle Robinson (Author)

Dive into a vibrant exploration of racial dynamics, urban modernity, and embodied social life in early 20th century America with Modern Moves: Dancing Race during the Ragtime and Jazz Eras. Danielle Robinson traces how Black, immigrant, and white communities in New York City mingled and clashed on dance floors, shaping new forms of social dance. From the “slow drag” to ballroom fusions, this book reveals how movement, migration, and performance intersected in the making of modern American social dancing.

With 224 pages of richly researched narrative and case studies, this volume is ideal for historians of dance, African American studies, cultural studies, and performance theory. Use it as a classroom text or as a reference for deeper understanding of how race, class, and bodies shaped the modern social world.

Modern Moves situates social dancing at the intersection of race, migration, and urban life during the ragtime and jazz eras, showing how embodied movement became a site for negotiating identity, belonging, and cultural power. The book is particularly relevant for scholars examining how “black” dance forms were appropriated, marketed, and transformed in twentieth-century America.