Java

The tradition & historical record

Java (French: [ʒa.va]) is a dance which was developed in France in the early part of the 20th century. The origin of its name is uncertain, but it probably evolved from the valse. Mainly performed in French bal-musette between 1910 and 1960, the dance was largely conceived due to popular demand for a new type of waltz, in particular, one which was easier, faster, more sensual, and would not require a dance hall as large as those typically used for waltzes. Java takes the form of a fast waltz, with the dancers dancing very close to one another, taking small steps to advance. Men will often place both their hands on their partner's buttocks while dancing. Naturally, this led some of the more respectable bal-musette dance halls banning java. ¹

Mistinguett - La java, 1923 Georgius - La plus bath des javas, 1925 Alibert and Gaby Sims - Un petit cabanon, 1935 Edith Piaf - La java de cézigue, 1936 Fréhel - La Java bleue, 1938 Darcelys - Une partie de pétanque, 1941 Edith Piaf - L'Accordéoniste, 1942 Boris Vian - La Java des bombes atomiques, 1955 Léo Ferré - Java partout, 1957 Claude Nougaro - Le Jazz et la Java, 1962 Serge Gainsbourg - La Javanaise, 1963 Michel Sardou - La Java de Broadway, 1977 TC Matic - Le Java, 1982 ¹

A java is danced during a key scene at a working class café in Jean Vigo's film L'Atalante (1934). Composer Maurice Jaubert arranged his java melody for player piano; it recurs later in the soundtrack as a refrain for accordion. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Java (dance)”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Java is dance which was developed in France in the early part of the 20th century, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 2 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²