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This article is about the form of music and dance. For other meanings, see Cakewalk (disambiguation).

Cakewalk, 1892

Cakewalk is a traditional African American form of music and dance which originated among slaves in the Southern United States. The form was originally known as the chalk line walk; it takes its name from competitions slaveholders sometimes held, in which they offered slices of hoecake as prizes for the best dancers.^[1]

The dance was invented as a satirical parody of the formal European ballroom dances preferred by white slave owners, and featured exaggerated imitations of the dance ritual, combined with traditional African dance steps.^[2] One common form of cakewalk dance involved couples linked at the elbows, lining up in a circle, dancing forward alternating a series of short hopping steps with a series of very high kicking steps. Costumes worn for the cakewalk often included large, exaggerated bow ties, suits, canes, and top hats.

Dances by slaves were a popular spectator pastime for slaveholders, evolving into regular Sunday contests held for their pleasure. Following the American Civil War, the tradition continued amongst African Americans in the South and gradually moved northward. The dance became nationally popular among whites and blacks for a time at the end of the 19th century.^[1] The syncopated music of the cakewalk became a nationally popular force in American mainstream music, and with growing complexity and sophistication evolved into ragtime music in the mid 1890s. The music was adopted into the works of various white composers, including Robert Russell Bennett, John Philip Sousa and Claude Debussy. Debussy wrote Golliwog's Cakewalk as the final movement of the Children's Corner suite (1908).^[3]

The term "cakewalk" is often used to indicate something that is very easy or effortless. Though the dance itself could be physically demanding, it was generally considered a fun, recreational pastime. The phrases "takes the cake" and "piece of cake" also come from this practice.^[1]

Today, one version of the cakewalk is kept alive by traditional Scottish Highland dancers. The cakewalk is sometimes taught, performed and competed within the Highland Dance community, especially in the southern United States.^[2] In addition to the Highland Dance community, a version of the cakewalk seen in vintage film clips from the early 1900s is kept alive in the Lindy Hop community through performances by the Harlem Hot Shots and through cakewalk classes held in conjunction with Lindy Hop classes and workshops.

The cakewalk is also now seen as a game in church, school and other bazaars and fairs. Participants walk around a path with numbered squares in time with music; when the music stops, a number is called out and the person standing on that square receives a cake. Cakes are usually donated by members of the church or school and the participants buy tickets to play.^[4][5]

However, it was at one of these balls that I first saw the cake-walk. There was a contest for a gold watch, to be awarded to the hotel head-waiter receiving the greatest number of votes. There was some dancing while the votes were being counted. Then the floor was cleared for the cake-walk. A half-dozen guests from some of the hotels took seats on the stage to act as judges, and twelve or fourteen couples began to walk for a sure enough, highly decorated cake, which was in plain evidence. The spectators crowded about the space reserved for the contestants and watched them with interest and excitement. The couples did not walk round in a circle, but in a square, with the men on the inside. The fine points to be considered were the bearing of the men, the precision with which they turned the corners, the grace of the women, and the ease with which they swung around the pivots. The men walked with stately and soldierly step, and the women with considerable grace. The judges arrived at their decision by a process of elimination. The music and the walk continued for some minutes; then both were stopped while the judges conferred; when the walk began again, several couples were left out. In this way the contest was finally narrowed down to three or four couples. Then the excitement became intense; there was much partisan cheering as one couple or another would execute a turn in extra elegant style. When the cake was finally awarded, the spectators were about evenly divided between those who cheered the winners and those who muttered about the unfairness of the judges. This was the cake-walk in its original form, and it is what the colored performers on the theatrical stage developed into the prancing movements now known all over the world, and which some Parisian critics pronounced the acme of poetic motion.

—James Weldon Johnson: The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, 1912, Chapter 5

1. ^ ^{a b c} Cakewalk Dance. Streetswing Dance History Archive. Retrieved on 2007-04-01.
2. ^ ^{a b} Kirsty Duncan PhD. Introduction to Highland Dancing. Electric Scotland. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
3. ^ Crawford, Richard (2000). An Introduction to America's Music. New York City: W. W. Norton & Co.. 
4. ^ Kimberly Reynolds. Bake Sale Fundraiser. ArticleBin. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
5. ^ Cakewalk Fundraiser. Innoko River School. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.

• Britannica Brief article on the cakewalk
• Cakewalk Dance Clips on Youtube.