Dancing the Big Apple, 1937 : African- Americans inspire a national craze

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Summary

It's 1937, and the nation is struggling to recover from the Great Depression, complicated by a new recession. Three white teenagers enter an African-American nightclub called the Big Apple in Colum...

It's 1937, and the nation is struggling to recover from the Great Depression, complicated by a new recession. Three white teenagers enter an African-American nightclub called the Big Apple in Columbia, South Carolina. They see a strange circle dance performed to popular swing music ... So begins an exciting encounter of cultural traditions the builds to a massive dance craze involving Americans from every walk of life - including the FDR family in the White House. Viewers take a journey back to Africa, through slavery, and into the fascinating account of the Ring Shout ceremony practiced by African-Americans - sometimes secretly, sometimes openly - for hundreds of years. With taproots deep in history, The Big Apple dance provided just the right medicine in trying times.

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