Foxtrot
American social dance in 4/4 time.
What it means
The foxtrot is an American social dance in 4/4 time that arose in the 1910s and quickly developed into one of the most widely danced couple dances. It combines gliding, striding movements with an alternation of slow and quick steps.
Musically the foxtrot is closely connected with early jazz and the dance music of the 1910s and 1920s. Characteristic are an even pulse in duple time, an accompaniment that marks the beats distinctly, and a melody with syncopated turns.
From the foxtrot several dances with different tempi developed. The slow foxtrot (German Slowfox) is a calm, flowing standard dance; the fast foxtrot, from which the quickstep developed, is markedly quicker. This distinction is made precisely in dance training, less so in general usage.
In the notation
The foxtrot is in 4/4 time, often with a bass on the first and third beats and a chord on the second and fourth. The melody is clearly articulated, usually in sections of eight bars, often with syncopations.
Musical use
The foxtrot shaped the dance music of the interwar period and was played by dance orchestras in America and Europe. Numerous songs of this time were arranged as foxtrots. In the dance school and in competitive dancing it is widespread to this day.
Its first appearance is usually dated to 1914. The origin of the name is unclear; a widespread explanation traces it to the vaudeville performer Harry Fox. The dancing couple Vernon and Irene Castle made it popular, and W. C. Handy saw his Memphis Blues as its inspiration. From the late 1910s into the 1940s the foxtrot was the most popular fast dance, and the great majority of records released in those years were foxtrots.
Performance practice
Keep the pulse even and the tempo constant; dancers need reliability. Bring out the syncopations of the melody lightly without throwing the accompaniment out of time. Play the accompaniment slim. And settle which foxtrot is meant — the tempo differs considerably.