The prime example of a contagious dance from the Roaring Twenties that played a significant role in the emergence of youth culture is the Charleston. The Charleston dance craze was a phenomenon that sent young people into boundless euphoria and older generations into fear and terror. We are showing two short films and a feature film that deal with the Charleston craze in a humorous way.

In ‘Fatal Footsteps’, comedian Charley Bowers plays, as he almost always does, a young man with a monomania, this time his determination to win a dance competition. He practises obsessively, drawing elaborate dance diagrams on the floor, but his style looks less like Charleston and more like a St Vitus' dance. Sur un air de Charleston by French director Jean Renoir is a surreal, erotic satire in which the world is turned upside down and a local white girl in run-down Paris teaches a futuristic African ethnologist how to dance the Charleston.

The two short films are set to music by Argentine singer and dancer Constanza Pellicci and American singer and multi-instrumentalist Steve Buchanan, using an instrument developed by Buchanan that allows music and dance to interact, combining rhythms live while tap dancing to the samples in real time. The body is used as a sequencer, interacting and adapting the beat to the sample tracks. The result is an extraordinary experience between movement and sound that effortlessly transcends the boundaries between music and dance itself.

In the newly restored feature film Skinner's Dress Suit, the protagonist Skinner has a lowly job that doesn't quite match the image his adoring wife has of him. This exuberant comedy about domestic customs from a bygone era, when husbands went to work and wives went shopping, is nevertheless a delight, thanks in particular to the stars Reginald Denny and Laura La Plante and the motif of infectious dancing that runs throughout the film. In the film's highlight, the two cause a sensation at an elegant soirée with the latest dance craze, the Savannah Shuffle...

For the first time, three international greats of jazz and free improvisation come together in a trio for the feature film: Argentine saxophonist Camila Nebbia, described by Jazz.pt magazine as ‘one of the most important saxophonists of our time’; British double bassist John Edwards, one of the most sought-after bassists around; and American drummer and percussionist Hamid Drake, who incorporates Afro-Cuban, Indian and African percussion instruments and influences into his drumming and has worked with numerous jazz greats such as trumpeter Don Cherry, pianist Herbie Hancock, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and bassist William Parker.

If you're not afraid of these infectious dances, we recommend attending the afternoon dance workshop led by Alessandra Hitz and then hitting the dance floor after the silent film programme to show off the moves you've learned to the music of DJ Robin.

The event is being held in collaboration with the Zurich Silent Film Festival, which is organised by Filmpodium and the IOIC – Institute of Incoherent Cinematography.

A DJ set that moves between jazz, swing, house, disco, soul and funk. Get ready to dance, sweat and party on the dance floor.