Java () is a

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

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 The waltz ( , meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position. Along with the ländler and allemande, the waltz was sometimes referred to by the generic term German ...

. Mainly performed in French

bal-musette Bal-musette is a style of French instrumental music and dance that first became popular in Paris in the 1880s. Although it began with bagpipes as the main instrument, this instrument was eventually replaced by the accordion, on which a variety of ...

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.

Titles

Mistinguett Jeanne Florentine Bourgeois (5 April 1873 – 5 January 1956), known professionally as Mistinguett (), was a French actress and singer. She was at one time the highest-paid female entertainer in the world. Early life The daughter of Antoine Bo ...

- ''La java'', 1923 *

Georgius Georgius is a masculine given name, the Latin form of the Greek name Γεώργιος ''Georgios''; its English equivalent is ''George (given name), George''. Notable people with the name include: * Georgius Choeroboscus (7th century), Greek educat ...

- ''La plus bath des javas'', 1925 * Alibert and Gaby Sims - ''Un petit cabanon'', 1935 *

Edith Piaf Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English word , meaning ''wealth'' or ''prosperity'', in combination with the Old English , meaning '' strife'', and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian lang ...

- ''La java de cézigue'', 1936 * Georgette Plana - ''La Java bleue'', 1938 * Darcelys - ''Une partie de pétanque'', 1941 *

- '' L'Accordéoniste'', 1942 *

Boris Vian Boris Vian (; 10 March 1920 – 23 June 1959) was a French polymath who is primarily remembered for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of th ...

- ''La Java des bombes atomiques'', 1955 *

Léo Ferré Léo Ferré (; 24 August 1916 – 14 July 1993) was a Monégasque poet and composer, and a dynamic and controversial live performer. He released some forty albums over this period, composing the music and the majority of the lyrics. He released ...

- ''Java partout'', 1957 *

Claude Nougaro Claude Nougaro (, ; 9 September 1929 – 4 March 2004) was a French jazz singer and poet. Life and career Claude Nougaro was born on 9 September 1929 in Toulouse to a respected French opera singer, Pierre Nougaro, and a piano teacher, Liette ...

- ''Le Jazz et la Java'', 1962 *

Serge Gainsbourg Serge Gainsbourg (; born Lucien Ginsburg; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French singer-songwriter, actor, composer, and director. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop, he was renowned for often provocative rel ...

- '' La Javanaise'', 1963 *

Michel Sardou Michel Charles Sardou (; born 26 January 1947) is a French singer and occasional actor. He is known not only for his love songs ("La maladie d'amour", "Je vais t'aimer"), but also for songs dealing with various social and political issues, su ...

- ''La Java de Broadway'', 1977 * TC Matic - ''Le Java'', 1982

On film

A java is danced during a key scene at a working class café in

Jean Vigo Jean Vigo (; 26 April 1905 – 5 October 1934) was a French film director who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s. His work influenced French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Biography Vigo was born to Emi ...

's film ''

L'Atalante ''L'Atalante'', also released as ''Le Chaland qui passe'' ("The Passing Barge"), is a 1934 French film written and directed by Jean Vigo, and starring Jean Dasté, Dita Parlo and Michel Simon. After the difficult release of his controversial sho ...

'' (1934). Composer Maurice Jaubert arranged his java melody for

player piano A player piano is a self-playing piano with a pneumatic or electromechanical mechanism that operates the piano action using perforated paper or metallic rolls. Modern versions use MIDI. The player piano gained popularity as mass-produced home ...

; it recurs later in the soundtrack as a refrain for

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

References

* Henri Joannis Deberne, ''Danser en société'', Christine Bonneton editor, 3/1999, Paris p. 144-145 French dances Music of France {{France-music-stub