What makes this dance recognizable? What is typical, distinctive or characteristic?

Round, opposing movements with hands and feet that are perpendicular relative to the leg, a bit bended knees and twisting.

The dance is named after the city (and Port of) Charleston, South Carolina.

Examples:

The Charleston - James P. Johnson
Black Bottom - Howard Lanin
The Girl Friend - Savoy Orpheans

BPM: 200 to 350 (about 44 MPM)

Video: as it may look ...
(We searched preferably brief and clear movies without much show, spectacle and competition.
Better suggestions are welcome.)


The dance was at the time provocative and immoral, a mockery of Prohibition. He was born around 1920 during the prohibition (alcohol prohibition in the U.S.). Josephine Baker made ​​him even more popular by dancing the Charleston at the Folies Bergère in Paris, in 1926.
The combination of jazz and smooth floors would result in short, rapid, raging movements with the feet. There are forward and backward kicks, turning (s) with the foot. This was characteristic of the Charleston. It can be danced both solo and as a duo. The music is cheerful, swinging Dixieland.
(Black) precursor of the Foxtrot and Quickstep with also a lot of influence on the Lindy Hop.