Devil in the Dancehall

In an old dance hall with boarded up windows and moonlight seeping through stained glass, people dance to live music on squeaky floorboards in a dark and dim ballroom. It’s lively, couples are swinging each other about the floor and others have snuck off to the shadowed and secluded corners of the large room. The room was crowded and warm even with the chill in the air from the fall air outside. 

A young woman whose dance partner has abandoned her for another is approached by a new young man. He is handsome and strong in build. He extends a smooth, sure hand and guides the young woman back onto the dance floor. She follows him and allows him to lead the dance. Together they twirl and turn and rock to the beat of the music. He pulls her close and she feels the heat of his body. He does not seem to tire as they dance on and on into the late night. The woman is getting dizzy, disoriented, but is enthralled by the way the man moves. She looks down the long line of his body and instead of polished shoes she sees goat hooves instead.

With the thrall broken, she shoves the man away. He dashes from the room, some say he disappears in a cloud of smoke or jumps through a window depicting the mother Mary, breaking her into shards. But all agree that left smoldering on the dance floor are the dark imprints of hooves. 

*

The Devil in the Dancehall is an old tale, traceable almost in entirety back to English middle ages although the figure of a demon dancing with young maidens is much older still. The story contains themes that were important to a 1930s-1940s Chicago when this story hit a resurgence, such as the dangers of drink and dancing and moral panic around unescorted young women. 

The venues of these stories were often inside and in a crowd, highlighting how the devil can permeate a well attended and vetted arena and how temptation can find one just about anywhere.