This was an excerpt from an email I was just writing:
Richard was giving a class on the texas Tommy today, and said the move we know of as the texas tommy probably came from a dance called the "Apatcha...?" It was a performance piece where a man was beating on a woman, and he whipped her out by the arm and then back in. He thinks that this move was adapted into the Texas Tommy dance (seen below in the latter half of the video). When I see this dancing, I find myself doubting that Shorty George Snowden actually "created" the breakaway. Richard thinks this video was probably from 1910 just after the earthquake in SF, but it's dated 1914 here. ANyways, that is some swinging dancing, not very different (in my mind) from the Savoy clips. naturally the difference was the music - here they were dancing to rags. fancier footwork and rhythmic variation would naturally arise as the music got more complicated, but it seems like all the groundwork for swing was already there. But maybe I don't understand the full importance of rhythm in the dance...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_Q_BHIniAM
