The Global Trickeration Project: Hundreds of Dancers from 35 Countries perform for Norma Miller
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Check out the Global Trickeration Project final video, a compilation of 157 videos from 35 countries, each one representing a group of lindy hoppers doing Norma Miller’s classic routine “the Trickeration.”
Thanks to the hundreds of dancers from around the world who collaborated to make this project happen. Hats off to organizers Tena Morales-Armstrong and Adam Browzowki for pulling this off.
About Norma's original Trickeration routine
From the Facebook group description
The Trickeration routine as it was taught by Norma, is a routine that Norma "borrowed" from the chorus dancers at Harlem's Apollo theatre probably around the mid 1930’s. The piece of the routine that Norma used and taught is only a part of a larger original routine that has been lost to time.
Norma often used the routine, or pieces of the routine, similarly to the way tap dancers use the B.S. chorus. It served to fill in spaces in her choreography and as a go-to foundation for classic Jazz steps. Norma also used it as an audition piece for the Norma Miller dancers and as a piece intermixed with other Lindy and Jazz choreography she assembled over the years.
Frankie Manning even used one of the steps classically in a sequence he also referred to as "Trickeration." And in 2016 a routine was commissioned by Norma with the help of Chazz and Chester which (to the point) has many Trickeration steps in it. Danced to "Rock a bye Basie," this routine has sometimes been confused with the original routine.
Although not a lot is technically known about the exact origins of the routine, it's easy to assume that it may have origionally come from the Cotton Club. Cab Calloway was the house band there and in 1931 had a song called "Trickeration." Dancers from the Cotton Club were likely to have also worked at other venues throughout Harlem like the Apollo, bringing the routine along with them and this may be the origin of how Norma came to know it.
Norma referred the sequence she used from Trickeration as "the last example of the great and true jazz done by the chorus girls of Harlem" and it has earned its rightful place in the canon of iconic jazz dances associated with our beloved legends of the Savoy and Harlem.
Speculation exists about the structure of the routine. While many feel the choreography may be structured to a blues format the original Trickeration song by Cab in 1931 is a 32 bar swing song. Norma would also ask dancers to dance the first phrase of the choreography for her which was the first four counts of eight further suggesting a 32 bar origin. The use of the song "Jive at Five" by Count Basie became globally linked with the routine after Norma taught master classes in New York City for several years bringing the original routine and sequence back into common knowledge of Jazz and Lindy dancers around the world.
