The Four Fords

The Four Fords were a popular group of tap dancers in the early 1900s. The group was made up of four siblings, Max Ford, Edwin Ford, Dora Ford and Mabel Ford. They also had another brother named Jonny Ford, he was a dancer as well but never toured with his siblings (Watson). When the fords were children, they were taught to dance very early in their life (Mable Ford). They learned many different types of dancing. Their brother Jonny Ford toured as a ballroom dancer (Watson). The Four Ford became popular around 1910. In 1913 The Four Fords broke up, but Mable and Dora kept touring as the Ford Sisters. Max Ford also toured with Hetty Urma-Ford Max’s second wife (Watson). It is believed that after Max left The Four Fords he became a successful movie choreographer. The Fords clogged danced, tap danced, and soft shoe danced (An Art of Infinite Variety). With Clog dancing the dancers would wear wooden shoes with split soles (Kaiserman). The danced started in England, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Germany. Clog dancing was originally a folk dance, and was an early form of tap dancing because the dancers would make noise with their shoes. Around the 1900s soft-shoe dancing started, in the melting pot of America. Different Cultures brought their different styles of dance. It is believed that the African dance styles were mixed with European styles and became rhythmic and fluid (archive.itvs.org). Dancers didn’t start wearing metal at the bottom of their tap shoes until around 1910 (archive.itvs.org). The Four Fords started to become famous at this time as well. It was a revolutionary time for tap dancing, and Highbrow magazine even references it as “the birth of tap”. The Fords were in the midst of it all. They became celebrities of their time. The Fords were vaudeville dancers (Watson). This meant that they were often in humorous variety shows. The Vaudeville shows were popular from the 1910 to the 1930s when they were beat out by the film industry (Kaiserman).

It was all of these styles of dance that The Four Fords not only studied but inspired them, and the way that they danced. They created a still-current move, devised by Max Ford, called “The Maxie Ford”. It’s not an extremely difficult move, and even beginner tap dancers can learn it. To do it you step on one foot, then shuffle with the other foot, then a small leap from one foot to the other changing your weight, and then a toe, also known as a tick across to the back with your free foot. It can be done on either side. All together it’s Step Shuffle Leap Toe. This is an example of how The Four Fords, and dancing of the early 1900s still live on today, and have left a legacy.

References

    archive.itvs.org. JUBA: Tap History. n.d. Web. <http://archive.itvs.org/juba/tap.html>

    —. Mable Ford. n.d. Web. <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0285762/bio>

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