Foxtrott
The Foxtrot came from America to Europe in 1918. He stood out due to nimble leg movements which got close to the real fox trot. Deep knee-bends, straddles and jumps with legs were thrown high into the air, were included just like a stopping in the middle of the most beautiful swing (breaks). There weren't specified step sequences. The couples tried with enthusiasm to surpass themselves in originality in which the strict pair binding was also given up from time to time. The general dancing teacher association (German ADTV, founded 1922)tried to get the foxtrot finally into today's "parquet flooring sneak" by the introduction of uniform regulations.
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Listen to: Ich hab' das Fräulein Helen baden seh'n

Shimmy
1920 the Shimmy from America succeeded the Foxtrot in Germany. As a jazz dance (generic term for "afro-American movement culture") this dance style was based on powerful vibrations of the body without moving. Usually the pelvis was shaken, sometimes only the hips or the buttocks. The short lady's dress whith its loose threads showed the rhythmic shaking very clearly. The couple position was practically resolved. The word Shimmy is of African origin and means in the slang of blacks strong excitement and sexual intercourse. Because of its provocative eroticism particularly the youth saw a possibility to an rebellious behaviour against the prudery of the middle classes. Unlike all western neighboring countries the Shimmy dominated Germany for half a decade.

Fräulein, would you like to dance Schimmy? (translated from German)
(1921 text J. Brammer/A. Grünwald, music: E. Kálmán) 
Fräulein, would you like to dance Schimmy? 
Schimmy, Schimmy, is the whole point of everything! 
The savages did it in the past once. 
Now it belongs to the good breeding.
In the past, it was schocking, 
now it's part of the good tone. 
Schimmy, Schimmy is the great fashion, Schimmy is the sensation. 

Listen to: I like to shimmy like my sister Kate

Charleston
Originally, the Charleston is a jazz melody from the Broadway-Negromusical "Running Wild" which went around the world and triggered also in Germany an avalanche in 1923 . By skillful marketing the dance itself and disk sale were set mutually in movement. A general choreography of the new popular dance was printed on many disk covers. A dance description of 1925 says:
"The torso trembles and, to this the movements of the hips, leg and buttocks correspond. The hands are also active, they touch all parts of the body as if in ecstasy. The alternate X- and O-legs, knees turned to the outside and inside. The dancer can bend his back or even take on a seated position." 
Because of up to 148 beats per minute high speed of the movements was necessary (generally there are 80-78 beats per minute). With the rowing arm and leg movements the dancers looked like runners. The ability for the isolated movement of single parts of the body was a necessary condition for this dance. This goes back to the African sources of the Charleston as a basic concept of all black dances. With the beginning of the world-wide economic crisis in 1929 the majority couldn't afford the evening pleasures any more, and therefore the dance lost its meaning. 

Listen to: Charleston

Black Bottom

1926 a further "dance on the spot" followed, with intensive forward and backward movings of the pelvis which awarded the name Black Bottom. In this dance  the middle of the body (burdened with sexuality) was shown shamelessly on the dance floor. The predecessors of the hot bum-dance were called Tommy (slang for abdomen) and Ballin' The Jack (slang for love act). The Black Bottom took the unambiguous symbolism for the bum, in which bang this together, the "bump" was the highlight. The collision seemed too shocking for white bums. The dance disappeared very fast therefore from German dance floors. 

Listen to: Black Bottom

NS and dancing
With the beginning of the world-wide economic crisis the music fashion in Germany changed. Instead of the hot jazz music pop-songs about love sorrow and "Old-Heidelberg" nostalgia prevailed now. The rediscovery of sentimental dances like waltz and tango corresponded to this wrong idyll. The society dance was on top again. Coming from England obligatory movement regulations were fixed for these "standard dances" which were determined by strict order. This appealed to the national socialist movement opinion. The national socialists first tried to replace the generally foreign ballroom dances by new German folk dances. They could fall back upon the old dances only within limits, since they existed within narrow regional boundaries, and for the taste of the Nazis they were wanton and frivolous. To guarantee cultivation and order, the new folk dances made a drilling field out of the dance floor. Because of a lack of demand the pseudo national new creations ordained by the state didn't gain acceptance. The society dances therefore were fallen back upon again in which these were robbed at her execution of any sensuality. The trunk had to remain broom stiff. The direction of looking was always straight over the shoulder of the partner. The man led, the woman had to follow. 
 
 
 

Swing
The swing fever from America reached Germany in the middle of the thirties against all efforts of the national socialists. It reached its climax in 1936 during the Olympic Games when international orchestras were allowed to play in Berlin swing music since the Nazis wanted to appear liberal-minded. The swing dance was a new variant of the jazz dances of the twenties  and corresponded to the popular American dance "Lindy Hop", created in Harlem in 1927 (an allusion to the century flight of Lindbergh). It was danced in pairs like the foxtrot and required a loose movement of all limbs and more or less improvisations. The Lindy Hop contained acrobatic figures at which the partners threw each other over the head and around the hips. These jumps in the air first apeared in Germany after the war. Although, the swing dance was ranked as an unwanted "foreign culture disgrace", it showed clear parallels with alpine folk dances (e.g. the "Schuhplattler") : open partner-bearing, lift-ups and turns under the arm of the partner. Particularly teenagers favored swing music and swing dancing, because it put a completely different, more attractive awareness of life (the "american way of life") against the HJ unity drill. Therefore the danced zest for life was seen as a dangerous contradiction against propagated cultivation and order. That's way the Swing-Youth was fought more strictly after the outbreak of the war. 

(This non-authentic (!) signpost was the resourceful idea of a record company in the mid 70's for a disk cover. There was no general ban given by the Reichskulturkammer (empire culture chamber). Before the war only occasionally local swing dance bani were given.)
 

In the course of the war there were temporary dance bani for all dances and again till it came to the definite attitude of the official pleasure business in 1944. Dancing was restricted to the little private frame. After the war the swing dance celebrated a renewed triumphal march as the boogie-woogie brought by the American GI's in Western Germany. 

Listen to: Je suis Swing

Listen to: It don't mean a thing (if it ain't got that swing)

Listen to: Let's do the Lindy Hop

Shag

(clickable Image)

This dance was particularly popular with the youth in the thirties in America. His characteristics were small, fast steps and a narrow posture. He was therefore suitable for fast swing music and crowded dance floors. (Click the left picture for dance instructions).

Tap-dance
From the 20s to the 50s the tap-dancing enjoyed great popularity by dancers and the audience. It had its highlight during the thirties. At this dance the rhythm became his accent by a fast change of heels and tops. Well-known American tap-dancers were Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Eleonor Powell, the Nicholas Brothers and the child-star Shirley Temple. The German counterparts in film and cabaret are Marika Rökk, Evelyn Künneke and the Höpfner Twins. They didn't reach the elegance of the Americans, though however, they contributed decisively to the popularity of this dance in Germany. 
As usual in the national socialism the emergence story in the book "tap-dance dance in the alone lesson" of 1940 was presented in a "racially correct" way: 

 

"And if it (the tap-dance) has conquered himself the world from North America, he is nevertheless neither a purely American thing still it has to do something with niggers. The tap-dance rather has his origin in old nordic fisherman dances in which the typical "taps" exists til today. Well, his pre-ancestors are rootedly in the folk dance, so also in the Bavarian Schuhplattler ... " 
 
 
 
 

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Listen to: Let's scuffle