During the 19th century, most of America's dances were imported from Europe, as dance masters emulated the latest fashions of London and Paris.  At the same time, the slaves from Africa were combining their native music and dance with European and Caribbean forms, resulting in their spirituals and "Ethiopian Melodies" that were popularized by minstrel shows and American composers like Foster, Christy and Gottschalk. This new uniquely American music developed into the more syncopated Ragtime music during the 1890s and early 1900s.


At the end of the 19th century, many Americans were becoming bored with the old music and dances, which were essentially those of their grandparents.  The Twentieth Century was seen as a time to make great changes, so most people were ready for innovations, probably with the expectation that the changes would come from society's cultural leaders.  But instead, many Americans began to find it "modern" to dance to the new Ragtime music from the rural South and Midwest.  Even a few high society ballrooms accepted the African-American Cake Walk as "the popular fad of popular society."  In the early 1900s, Ragtime music began to gain a wider acceptance and it soon was accompanied by the Four-Step (soon to be re-named the One-Step) and Texas Tommy, then a spontaneous menagerie of "animal dances" such as the Grizzly Bear, Turkey Trot, Bunny Hug and Camel Walk, especially among the lower classes.  By 1910, the popular phrase was, "Everybody's Doin' It Now," but in fact most of middle and upper class society was only talking about it.  They could not yet accept the new ragtime dances because of the association with blacks, bars or brothels.

In 1911 the newlyweds Irene and Vernon Castle found themselves in the right place at the right time, exhibiting their versions of the new American dances in a Parisian dinner club.  They became immensely popular in Paris, and their fame spread through Europe.  When the Castles returned to Irene's New York home in 1912, their dancing set a new prototype for Americans to follow.  The Castles were a young, elegant, attractive, wholesome, married couple who had become the rage of Parisian high society.  In a word, they had class.  If they could dance the new ragtime dances, then all levels of society could, and did.  The Castles were joined by other exemplars, such as Maurice Mouvet and Joan Sawyer, becoming catalysts in a huge ragtime era dance mania.  After two centuries of Americans dancing in the European manner, Europe was now importing the latest music and dances from America.

During the ragtime dance craze, the ballrooms were dominated by the One-Step, where a couple merely walked one step to each beat of the music.  Its immense popularity was due primarily to its simplicity, so that even novices could be modern.  Those who were especially fond of the new dancing had a wide variety of other steps and styles to choose from.  The Argentine Tango, which had been received with great acclaim in Paris, was renowned for its flirtations with sensuality, previously forbidden in public dancing.  In contrast, the Hesitation Waltz was characterized by an elegant, almost balletic grace.  The Maxixe was a swaying Brazilian two-step (polka) that was thought of as a Brazilian Tango.  Vernon and Irene danced the One-Step in a unique style that became known as the Castle Walk.  The Half-and Half was an unusual hesitation waltz in 5/4 time, accompanied by even more obscure experiments in 7/4 time.  Finally, the Fox-Trot was introduced in the last months before "The Great War."

World War I brought an end to the ragtime era dance craze in 1914-15.  The twenties saw a revival of social dancing with Classic Jazz music, the Charleston, Collegiate, Black Bottom and the original Lindy Hop, which had evolved in Harlem from the 1910 Texas Tommy.  The Tango adopted a more "gaucho" style under the influence of Rudolph Valentino, and the bouncy ragtime Fox-Trot became smoother walking.  Although the twenties saw a return of tremendous enthusiasm for dancing, it never quite reached the heights of originality, diversity and mass popularity seen in the ragtime era.