Performing American: Ragtime Dancing as Participatory Minstrelsy

Abstract

This article considers ragtime dancing within the contexts of American minstrelsy, African American migration, and European immigration. Based on archival research and drawing upon contemporary minstrelsy scholarship, I argue that ragtime dancing of the early twentieth century can be understood as a form of participatory minstrelsy that allowed dancers to embody markers of “blackness.” I further suggest that, as they danced “black” to ragtime music, European immigrant youths distanced themselves from African Americans and facilitated their own strategic assimilation as Americans.

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