The Story of American Vernacular Dance

The late Marshall Stearns was author of The Story of Jazz, and was the founder of the Newport Jazz Festival and Institute of Jazz Studies. He was also a professor of English at Hunger College in New York and a medieval literature scholar. He died in 1966 while completing his book Jazz Dance co-authored by his wife Jean. Jean Stearns, is an authority on jazz and assisted her late husband Marshall in researching and writing Jazz Dance.

* Marshall Winslow Stearns: An Appreciation by James T. Maher * Prologue Prehistory * Africa and the West Indies * New Orleans and the South * The Pattern of Diffusion Beginnings * From Folk to Professional * Early Minstrelsy * Minstrel Dances and Dancers * Late Minstrelsy The Vernacular * Medicine Shows and Gillies * Carnivals, Circuses, and Negro Minstrels * Roadshows, T.O.B.A., and Picks * The Witman Sisters Tin Pan Alley and Song Lyrics * Ballroom Origins * The Song Writer: Perry BradfordI * The Song Writer: Perry BradfordII Broadway and the Reviewers * Williams and Walker and the Beginnings of Vernacular Dance on Broadway * Early Harlem * Shuffle Along * Broadway: The Early Twenties * Broadway: The Late Twenties * Choreography: Buddy Bradley Technique: Pioneers, Innovators, and Stylists * King Rastus Brown and the Time Step * Bill Robinson: Up on the Toes * Frank Condos: Wings and the Expanding Repertory * James Barton: Versatility * Harland Dixon and Character Dancing * John W. Bubbles and Rhythm Tap * Fred Astaire Specialties * Eccentric Dancing * Comedy Dancing * Russian Dancing Acrobatics * Straight Acrobatics * The New Acrobatics * The Flash Acts The Class Acts * The Original Stylists * The First Class-Act Team: Greenlee and Drayton * Pete Nugent and the Class Acts * Coles and Atkins: The Last of the Class Acts The Jitterbug * Harlem Background * The Savoy Ballroom * From Coast to Coast Requiem * Baby Laurence and the Hoffers Club * Groundhog * The Dying Breed * Epilogue