The Cakewalking Couple: Johnson and Dean

Dean, whose birth name was Dora Babbige, was born in Covington, KY. In London, Dean was known as "The Black Venus," a title Josephine Baker would later inherit. She was married to Charles E. Johnson, and they performed as a couple, often billed as the creators of the Cake Walk dance. Dean and Johnson were a stylish and graceful dance team who perfected the Cake Walk into a high-stepping swank. They also performed soft shoe and wing dancing; they were stars of "The Creole Show," emphasizing couples dancing.

Dean and Johnson were the first African American couple to perform on Broadway. They were also the first to perform in evening attire; and they were also considered the best dressed couple on stage. Dean was described as possessing a plump, striking figure; she posed for German painter Ernest von Heilmann, and the painting was unveiled in 1902 at the coronation of King Edward VII and exhibited at the Paris Expo.

Dora even had a few songs written about her one such song was titled, 'Have You Met Miss Dora Dean, Prettiest Girl You've Ever Seen.'

The couple was also the first to use steel taps on their shoes and the first to use strobe lighting. Beginning in 1903, they lived and performed mostly in Europe and some in Australia and the U.S. They returned home in 1913. The couple had divorced in 1910, and once back in the U. S. they continued performing but did not perform together for a long while. In 1930, Dean had an acting role in the film Georgia Rose, an all African American talkie by white director Harry Gant. Dean and Johnson reunited as a team and a couple in 1934, and both retired by 1942. They spent the remainder of their lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Dean had a long illness and died in her sleep in 1943. Johnson passed away in his 80s in 1956.

Sources: Babylon Girls: Black Women Performers and the Shaping of the Modern by Jayna Brown (2008); Southwest Journal article by Karen Cooper (Feb. 2020)