In a typical country-fair Cakewalk, participants dance or walk to music along numbered plaques laid out in a circle on the ground. When the music stops, a number is picked from a hat and the person left standing on the plaque bearing that number receives a Cake! At the LandEscapes opening on July 23, prizes of edible and non-edible cakes will be masterpieces and celebrations of the talents of local chefs and artists. The plaques will be colorful artwork fashioned and donated by children from the MDI elementary schools.

The term "Cakewalk" refers to a syncopated music and dance form that  originated on the South with slavery’s satirical parody of the plantation owners’ formal European dances. A mix of exaggerated imitations and traditional African dance steps, the music and dance often included coded messages of subversion against plantation owners. A cake was often presented to the winner of the dance and led to the familiar phrases “That takes the Cake” and “It’s a piece of Cake.”

Along with many other African American forms, the “Cakewalk became a popular force in mainstream music. Vaudeville shows and high society took to the “Cakewalk Dance” which eventually evolved into Ragtime in the mid 1880’s.  Marching bands adapted these dance steps into the familiar strutting routines of drum majors. The French composer, Debussy, collected Cake Walk music and wrote “The Golliwog’s Cakewalk” as the final movement of his suite, “Children’s corner”.

Our Cake Walk at the LandEscapes opening celebration will be an opportunity for the public to enjoy creative cakes, myriad music and an artful dance while stepping from one child’s original design to another.

A portion of the proceeds of this event will go to support Union 98 Artists in Residence Program, which brings the arts into the MDI school classrooms. Thanks to EBS for donating the materials for the plaques for the children’s work.