Struttin' / Fishtail
Also known as: Struttin', The Strut, Fish Tail, Fishtail
History & Cultural Context
Struttin' and the fishtail sit together as the display end of the blues repertoire, where the dancer's own body is the instrument rather than the couple's shared axis. The Spurlock Museum places Struttin' in Memphis in the 1940s and 1950s, danced to faster Delta blues in an inward-leaning embrace that opens enough space between partners for syncopated footwork. Its ballroom cousin, the Strut, is associated with New Orleans jazz-blues and keeps the close hold while adding a rolling, showy motion through the upper torso and flowing turns. The fishtail names the hip action itself: a figure-eight tracing through the pelvis that scholars connect directly to West and Central African movement retention, and which appears in the same family as snake hips. Both can be danced solo, and both were carried into performance — Earl Snakehips Tucker, who worked the Savoy Ballroom, Connie's Inn and the Cotton Club before his death in 1937, built a stage act on precisely this hip articulation and is the best-filmed exponent of the idea, though his snake hips is a theatrical relative of the social fishtail rather than the same thing. The vocabulary connects blues to vernacular jazz solo dance and to the strutting traditions that fed the cakewalk.
Cultural Significance
Strutting and hip articulation carry retained African movement vocabulary through slavery into Black American social dance, and their move onto Harlem stages in the 1920s and 1930s made them both visible and vulnerable to caricature.
Characteristic Movement & Technique
Figure-eight tracing of the hips, isolated pelvic and torso articulation over a steady lower body, proud forward-carried chest, and syncopated foot patterns in the gap between partners.
Partnering Dynamics
An inward-leaning embrace that deliberately leaves room between the bodies so footwork and hip work stay visible; equally viable as a solo idiom with no partner at all.
Competitive Context
Historically a display vocabulary in social settings and on Harlem stages rather than a contest form; it appears today inside solo blues and vernacular jazz showcases.
Regional Variations
Memphis Struttin' runs fast over Delta blues, while the New Orleans Strut stays in close embrace over jazz-blues with rolling upper-body motion.
Common Misconceptions
The fishtail is often mistaken for a purely sexual gesture or a modern burlesque borrowing; it is an inherited polycentric movement principle documented as part of the African retention in Black American vernacular dance.
Peak Popularity
Signature Figures
- Earl "Snakehips" Tucker
Dance Lineage
Struttin' / Fishtail Music & Tempo
Drawn from 15 Struttin' / Fishtail tracks in the LODance music library.
Example tracks at practice tempo
- Mean Old Frisco Blues — Muddy Waters107 BPM
- Bakersfield Blues — Brother Yusef135 BPM
- I Ain't Got You — Jimmy Reed132 BPM
- Give Me Back My Wig — Hound Dog Taylor108 BPM
- Shake Your Money Maker — Elmore James101 BPM
- Lovin' My Baby — Big Walter Horton125 BPM
Legends of Struttin' / Fishtail
Dancers, choreographers and teachers whose work shaped this style.
What to Wear
Attire guidance for Struttin' / Fishtail and other Blues & Slow Social Dance dances. Each card below is sized to the moment — class, practice, social, or competition — because the wardrobe shifts as the stakes do.
Reading the cards
In Class
Comfortable clothes you can sweat in, plus smooth-soled shoes you can pivot in — leather or suede soles are the norm and rubber gym soles grab the floor hard enough to hurt a knee. Most venues ask that you change out of street shoes at the door. Because this is a close-connection dance, leave off long necklaces, dangling earrings, watches and anything with hooks or a rough seam that will catch a partner or scratch a forearm.
Social Dancing
Blues venues run from juke-joint casual to dressy at exchanges and late-night rooms; look at what the local scene wears and match it, but nothing formal is required. Hygiene is genuinely part of the dress code here in a way it is not in most styles — deodorant, mints, and a change of shirt in your bag, because you will be in close embrace for several songs at a stretch. Go light on perfume and cologne; many dancers are scent-sensitive, and it lingers on everyone you dance with.
Competition
Blues has no formal competitive circuit with a costume rulebook; the competitive format that exists is the Jack & Jill or Strictly contest run at weekend exchanges. Wear something that reads clearly from across the floor and that will survive several fast rounds without adjustment — and keep the same close-embrace rules in mind, since your partner is randomly drawn. Community norms outrank aesthetics: close embrace is invited rather than assumed, and nothing you wear should create contact your partner hasn't agreed to.
Shoes
Smooth soles that pivot: suede or chrome leather, never a rubber gym sole, which grabs a wooden floor hard enough to torque a knee mid-turn. Low, stable heels or flats — blues sits into the floor with bent knees and a high heel fights that all night. Indoor-only, changed at the door; most venues explicitly ban shoes that have been worn outside. Aris Allen and Só Dança sit at the affordable end, with Saint Savoy, Bleyer and Nueva Epoca above them.
In Practice
Practice wear is a little more fitted than social wear, because blues is about weight, pulse and what the torso is doing, and a teacher cannot correct what a drapey top hides. Train in the shoes you will social dance in — sole friction changes everything about how a pivot and a drag feel. Layers matter: practice rooms start cold and you will be soaked an hour in, so bring the spare shirt to practice too, not just to the dance.
By Role
Leaders
Class: Nothing that interferes with the frame or the point of contact: a top with sleeves or an undershirt, since a partner's hand rests on your shoulder and upper back for whole songs, and a spare shirt so that stays pleasant late in the night. Skip rigid collars, chest-pocket pens and a large belt buckle — all of them press into a partner in close embrace.
Competition: Jack & Jill and Strictly contests carry no costume rules, so wear what you social dance in, in a colour that separates you from the floor and the crowd. Keep the frame legible — nothing bulky through the shoulders, nothing that hides where your weight actually is, since that is what a judge is reading.
Followers
Class: Anything that lets you sit into a deep bend and travel through a slow drag — a skirt needs enough width for that, or wear trousers, and a pencil skirt will simply stop you. Leave off long necklaces, dangling earrings and loose clips: in close embrace they catch on a partner, and a caught earring hurts.
Competition: Same clothes as a social night, chosen for how they read from across the room; a skirt with some weight makes the pulse and the drag visible in a way leggings do not. Secure anything that can shift or fall, because you are dancing with a randomly drawn partner in front of judges and there is no second take.
Common Pitfalls
- ✗Rubber-soled trainers on a wooden floor — they grip through a pivot and knee injuries follow.
- ✗Wearing the shoes you arrived in; almost every venue asks you to change at the door.
- ✗Heavy fragrance in a close-embrace room, where it lands on every partner you have all night.
- ✗Long necklaces, dangly earrings and loose hair clips, which catch and tear in close embrace.
- ✗Treating close embrace as the default: it is offered and accepted, never assumed, and clothing should not force it.
Price Range
- Budget: Clothes you own, plus a smooth-soled shoe you can pivot in — a cheap leather-soled dress shoe or well-worn flats will get you started for under $50.
- Mid: Aris Allen or Só Dança dance shoes roughly $60–110, a suede brush around $10, a shoe bag and a spare shirt.
- Premium: Saint Savoy, Bleyer or Nueva Epoca at roughly $150–280, often with replaceable soles — worth it if you dance several nights a week, and largely invisible to anyone but you.
Key Terms
- Close embrace
- Chest-to-chest connection, invited rather than assumed — what you wear should not create contact your partner has not agreed to.
- Chrome leather sole
- Soft tanned leather sole that slides and pivots predictably on wood; suede is the other standard. Rubber is the thing to avoid.
- Pulse
- The grounded vertical bounce that drives blues — danced with bent knees, which is why low heels and unrestrictive legwear matter.
- Jack & Jill
- Contest format with randomly assigned partners; the closest thing blues has to competition, and it has no dress code.
- Scent sensitivity
- Widely observed community norm — go light on perfume and cologne, since it transfers to everyone you dance with.
Quick Tips
- •Suede-soled shoes allow controlled sliding and pivoting — essential for most partner dances.
- •Avoid rubber soles on dance floors; they grip too much and can cause knee injuries.
- •Bring a separate pair of clean shoes for the dance floor to keep it in good condition.
Sources & Further Reading
Cultural & Historical Context
Struttin' / Fishtail emerged from Memphis, New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta during the 1900s—1960s. Understanding the cultural roots, musical traditions, and social circumstances of this era enriches appreciation for the dance's characteristics and significance.
Formative Influences
Signature Movement Vocabulary:
Earl "Snakehips" Tucker
Primary Source Documents
The Library of Dance contains public-domain primary sources for dance history. Copyrighted modern syllabi are indexed with purchase links to their respective copyright owners. Search by dance name or codifier to discover primary source documents.
Last reviewed: September 2026 — This dance profile synthesizes historical research, cultural documentation, and contemporary practice knowledge to provide authoritative context.
More in Blues & Slow Social Dance
Ballroomin' Blues
The upright, traveling branch of blues dance, developed in Northern ballrooms where floor space allowed couples to move along the line of dance to slow jazz-blues.
Juke Joint Blues
The grounded, close, largely stationary branch of blues dance, shaped by the crowded floors of Southern juke joints and danced to Delta and electric blues.
Slow Drag
The historic close-embrace blues form in which partners hold each other and sway and grind almost in place, documented in the South from the late nineteenth century.
Fusion Dance
A modern improvised partner dance that grew out of the blues revival, blending techniques from tango, contact improvisation, ballet and street dance to whatever music is played.
Blues & Slow Social Dance in art
Browse the gallery →Works from the wider Blues & Slow Social Dance tradition — we have not yet identified enough that depict Struttin' / Fishtail specifically.
Jitterbug Wolcott FSA
Marion Post Wolcott
public_domain
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