World renowned 20s Charleston and solo jazz dancer Ksenia Parkhatskaya presents her special online dance course “Secrets of Charleston 20s”. With over 40 lessons and 2 hours of content you will discover how to do the 20s Charleston in the convenience of your home.
What is 20’s Charleston?
Read the full article on History of the Charleston dance.
The Charleston dance had possibly the greatest influence on the American culture. Enslaved Africans brought it from Kongo to Charleston, South Carolina, as the Juba dance, which then slowly evolved into what is now known as Charleston. / ../ In African, however, the dance is called Juba or the Djouba. The name Charleston was given to the Juba dance by European Americans
Africanisms in American Culture, p.52
Many scholars attribute the creation and the spread of the Charleston dance to Gullah / Geechee culture and the boys from the Jenkins Orphanage Band.
It is considered that The Charleston dance was “officially” shown in public in the all Black Africa – American Broadway musical “Runnin’ Wild”. Elida Webb Dawson, African- American dancer, was the choreographer for the show. Her set of movements was accompanied by “The Charleston” tune by James P. Johnson and Cecil Mack. The tune had a very characteristic Charleston beat, which James P. Johnson said he first caught from southern musicians and dancers from Charleston city.
The Charleston became the international craze, when African American performer Josephine Baker introduced the Charleston dance in Europe during her Parisian tour “Le revue negre”.
Where to learn how to dance 20’s Charleston?
You can find a local swing dance or solo jazz dance school where you can ask for 20s Charleston solo classes. Another way, which can be more convenient in some ways is to learn how to dance with online classes. Ksenia’s Secrets of the Charleston 20’s is an online course on how to learn the famous 20s Charleston in 8 chapters, 40 videos and almost 2 hours of high quality online content.
The course is taught by a sensational dancer, who made her name in dance though her Charleston performances, Ksenia Parkhatskaya. Dancing since 6 years of age, Ksenia came to fame through her signature Charleston choreography on “So You Think You Can Dance” in Ukraine (invited to the show as a participant from Russia). She soon rose to be one of the most viewed dancers on the internet with over 200 million views.
A dance artist, choreographer and performer Ksenia has created many short dance films and clips inspired by flapper character and 20s Charleston dance style.
Trained in competitive ballroom dance in Russia and competing on a regular basis for 9 years, Ksenia is more interested in performance and creation. Though in a spirit of solo jazz and Charleston battles and races, she occasionaly participated in swing dance international competitions, placing first.
Secrets of Charleston 20s online dance classes are a chocolate box of dance steps, movement tricks and technique tips. You will for sure enrich your pockets with good basic vocabulary as well as dizzy flash steps that will insure your greatness on the dance floor. You will discover some of my step variations and get inspired by the immense world of creativity that jazz in general brings. And all of it will settle the best way in your body with a seasoning of some useful technique secrets.
Ksenia
The Secrets of 20s Charleston series cover a wide range of levels: from beginners to advanced dancers. Beginners can learn basic steps and techniques, improvers can enrich their vocabulary and learn some flash steps and advanced dancers can get new ideas, steps variations and refine their style.
I picked the best of what I know and love about 20’s Charleston and combined it with my dance experience and general dance approach. Above all I value the individual voice in any art form. That is why I am sharing my way: my personal twist on original steps plus steps I created myself as well as ideas I have developed over the years
Ksenia
What is inside Secrets of Charleston 20s online dance course?
Secrets of Charleston 20’s online dance course is build around moves and famous footwork. There are 7 chapters, inside which you will have several dance classes with progressive variations of this specific step.
For example let’s take a look at Chapter V: Basic Step Variations. In the first video I will break down the absolute basics of the charleston step and start with the variation #1. Then you will have 3 more videos with 3 different variations. And then the last video of the chapter will be a demo – me demonstrating how to dance those steps to the music and mixing them.
How to use Secrets of Charleston 20s?
Once you have picked the chapter, please go chronologically – the way I placed the videos for you. I thought it through. I have built my explanations and the material within a chapter in a progressive way. “Chapter VIII: Dizzy Moves” is an exception. There you get a collection of independent videos, where I teach you flash moves, flaps, slaps and so on.
Where to start in Secrets of Charleston 20s online dance course?
I recommend to start with Chapter I: Twist Recipe for everyone to get your 20’s Charleston technique in place, understand how the body works. 20’s Charleston is all about twists. Once you get it in your body, success will be guaranteed.
After you practiced Twist Recipe you can go ahead and jump to any of the chapters between Chapter II & V or just follow the order I prepared for you. This will enrich your vocabulary of 20s Charleston moves. Always go back to review Twist Recipe chapter because it is the fundamental building block of the dance and style. Remember, once in the chapter, follow chronology of the videos.
The last 3 chapters are about so called flash steps. For instance, the “Chapter VI: Black Bottom Cow Tail & Chapter VII: Slides Filling” are technically quite challenging. Make sure to first establish your basics before going into technically challenging movements.
“Chapter VIII: Dizzy Moves” is a candy box of spicy, eccentric dance moves. You can randomly pick a move from the collection for your practice and include in your dance as a flash step. The dance cannot consist of just flash moves glued together, so make sure to have your ways around first (check Chapters I to V).
Secrets of Charleston 20’s Table of Content
Chapter I: Twist Recipe
In this chapter you’ll get to know and experience the fundamental building block of 20s Charleston – twists and the Charleston body. You will discover what is a body state, feel, style and posture in when dancing the 20s specifically. And discover the technique and different patterns of the main component of the style, which is twist. Forget that you were ever walking parallel, every step is a twist in 20s Charleston. In a step-by-step manner we will ensure that your twists are fluid and fast.
For me, 20’s Charleston is about sparkling sharpness in the middle of mindless chaos of dance madness. Twist is the way to walk, live and think in 20s Charleston
Ksenia
- Twists & Charleston Body + demo
- Moving around with Twist + demo
- Butterfly Twist + demo
- Side Skippin’ + demo
- Twists & tips
- Twists on Fire
Chapter II: Fall off the log Tricks
In this chapter you will uncover on one of the great 20s Charleston and solo jazz steps – Fall(ing) off The Log. Falling-off-a-log is as well described as a step similar to Buffalo tap dance step but with a leaning pause added). It is a so- called travel step. The main rhythmic idea of the step is accentuating the backbeat on the kick. In that moment the whole body gravitates to the ground. The art of mimicry and imitation is strongly developed in black dances.
What is it and how to bring it to life? Add simple changes like: twisting the step and playing with the type of kick so that the step can travel through era’s – from ragtime to swing.
- Black Bottom Twist
- Double Kick
- Kick Ball Change
- Buffalo
- Shuffle’n’Swing
- Tips
- Demo
Chapter III: Suzy Q
In this chapter you will be introduced to Susie Q, Suzie Q or Suzy-Q and it’s variations. It is a vernacular dance step, with a shuffling and sliding step (as well performed in tap) that was introduced at the Cotton Club in 1936. The origin of the name “Suzie Q” is uncertain. There is a the reference to the name in the 1936 song Doin’ the Suzie-Q by Lil Hardin Armstrong.
- How to?
- Swing the 8th
- Break with Shuffle
- Demo
- Chapter IV: Cross Behind & Triple
- Crabbin’ & Triple Step
- Swing the Triple
- Demo
Chapter V: Basic Charleston Step Variations
In this chapter you will learn the fabulous 20s Charleston basic step and eccentric variations created by Ksenia Parkhatskaya. Charleston name refers to a few elements: a song, a city, a style of the dance, a dance itself and a step. Nowadays, when we say Charleston basic or basic step when dancing solo in swing dance community, we refer to Charleston step. Charleston step has it’s eras and it changed with time and place. It started as a step with twists in jazz age, then transformed into a crazy wild kicking move in swing era.
Take the Charleston step, for example. We think it came up from South Carolina with its name intact and was introduced in a Broadway show, Running’ Wild.
Cholly Atkins from “Class Act: The Jazz Life of Choreographer Cholly Atkins”
- Brushes
- Zig Zag Kick
- Shuffle
- Rond
- Demo
Chapter VI: Black Bottom Cow Tail
The black bottom was a dance that hit America after The Charleston became famous in 1920’s. It’s a very feminine style with loads of animalistic movements. Cow tail is an animal inspired move, when the cows were stuck in the mud and had to wave their tail to get rid of flies around.
- Cow Tail
- Walking with Cow Tail
- Demo
You probably have seen one of crazy Charleston video of Ksenia Parkhatskaya where she twirls her leg as a fan in her famous smoking flapper character. That move is a charmer! You can learn it now here with a step by step instructions from Ksenia herself.
- the importance of isolation of upper and lower body
- where is the engine of cow tail
- how to have an infinite cow tail movement without loosing your balance
- how to create perfect 360 circle of a cow tail
- how the knee placement change the world of the cow tail move
- what is a “cow tail cheating”
Chapter VII: Slides Filling
Arguably, the most technically challenging chapter of the course, where you will unlock the beauty and potential of slides and 20s Charleston moves. Make sure to always warm up before and do the slide movement step by step, not rushing into it in order to be safe. Wear shoes that are not too sticky in order not to damage your knees by having too much friction with the floor. Equally, shoes that are too slippery might make it hard to coordinate. Remember, keep you knee in your vision space and you will be fine!
- Twist’n’ Slide
- High Kick Slide
- Back Slide
- Demo
Chapter VIII: Dizzy Moves
This chapter is a collection of individual flapper inspired, fluid and fast flash step as well as concepts of 20s Charleston style such a Silent Movie and exaggerated movement.
- Raindrops + demo
- Black Bottom slap + demo
- Happy Feet + demo
- J.Baker flavour + demo
- Silent Movie concept + demo
- Tips
Are you ready to push your 20s Charleston dance to the next level?
In this extensive videos series I will be breaking down techniques and steps from the legendary 20s Charleston dance. Each chapter tackles one 20s Charleston topic, and will be showing different patterns, variations and styling within that topic.
Here’s an example from one of the Secrets of Charleston 20s chapter “Cow Tail”
Are you interested? Become a member of Ksenia’s Secrets of Solo Online Dance Classes!
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