“Let me see you dance:” Ada “Bricktop” Smith, the Charleston, and Racial Commodification in Interwar France

• Published in: Journal of dramatic theory and criticism 2015-04, Vol.29 (2), p.43-61
• Main Author: McMahan, Matthew
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: African Americans; Bricktop; Cultural relations; Dance steps; Dancers; Gender; Industry; Jazz music; Performing artists; Race; Smith, Ada; Women
• ISSN: 0888-3203; 2165-2686; 2165-2686
• DOI: 10.1353/dtc.2015.0005

Part African American, part Irish American, Ada "Bricktop" Smith's nickname, derived from her brilliant red hair, was emblematic of both her fiery temper and exuberant personality. Bricktop achieved cultural recognition in France by exploiting a transnational Negro vogue, drawing from the French and American expatriate desire for an "authentic" Jazz culture in Paris. The author explores how Bricktop managed this balance. While "dancing" along the thin line of cultural commodification, Bricktop deftly positioned herself as a shrewd businesswoman who utilized white fascination with Jazz culture by creating and maintaining a small market where she controlled her own exposure. Her ability to do so reveals much about the commingling of race, gender, and the business of performance in France versus America in the early twentieth century. It also illustrates Bricktop's capacity to maneuver through these divergent, complex, and multivalent issues. Tied to Bricktop within this narrative was the Charleston, a dance she used in order to satisfy the desire of her white patrons, while simultaneously establishing her autonomy and her brand.