Dancing

[flashpig]

I'm sure I've seen the picture of people having dancing competitions in 1920's America where they would dance for days. What was this about, how long did it go on for, and what were the incentives?

[Clanad]

Although the fad started in America (it was popular in Europe and England at the same time) in the 1920's, it didn't become overwhelmingly popular until the Depression years of the 1930's.  It provided entertainment and the chance for participants to win prizes, including money.  The novel,  They Shoot Horses Don't They? was written in about 1935 and made into a movie a few years ago.  The Guiness Book of World Records  indicates the record for such dancing exceeded 5,000 hours...

[Clanad]

Seem to have left out the term that it was known by; Marathon Dancing...

[Peter Pedant]

Yeah, flashie -hire the viddie of They Shoot Horses dont they? The dancing goes arn and arn wowzer! But it is not for pleasure and the film portrays the suffering and degradation that these unfortunates underwent.

If you get the film you have to bear in mind that the hero ends up wearing the womans sweat shirt -

it's a bit sad

 

There is archive footage of them, mainly thirties and mainly concentrated in the midwest apparently, and of course there is the idea of using a pleasure as a form of torture.

Enjoy, you will find it more worthwhile than trying to get a verb that takes two accusatives into the passive voice.