Thanks, Russ, I am familiar with that clip for it's been on my list for quite a long time. The video, not any attempted dancing! Even young I could never have moved at that rate, even if I'd been able to remember the steps. I had this difficulty with synching my eyes and my feet: as a child of perhaps thirteen, I was once put in goal and when the ball came rolling towards me I ran at it and kicked and missed. I wasn't in goal again after that.
It has always interested me to see that this sort of dance appears, today, to be far more popular in parts of European where they have contests, and also on the Internet, than back where it all began, in the States. At least, Europe sems to provide more such videos as far as I can discover them.
But then France was very much more into jazz than other parts of Europe, and the UK only got back into the New Orleans style of music during the late 40s, and the 50s saw it boom and bust. As with so much, it appears that the people who originate something lose interest early: why otherwise would black Americans ignore jazz music today, and go for rap and stuff like that when their heritage has such depth of emotion and so many skilled musicians to its credit. Jazz, swing, blues, it all came from the same source even though some white guys were pretty good at it too. I suppose I can answer my own question: they follow the money; they have to.
