A variant of the straight jig was the "sand jig" or "sand dance", performed as a series of shuffles and slides on a sand-strewn stage. The most prominent sand jiggers of the 19th century were two women, both born in New York in 1855: Buffalo native Kitty O'Neil and her Manhattan-born rival Kitty Sharpe. Sand dancing was a staple of minstrelsy, variety and vaudeville, and was kept alive in later decades largely by African-American tap dancers, including John Bubbles, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Sammy Davis Jr., Harriet Browne and, most prominently, Howard "Sandman" Sims.
A variant of. the straight jig was the "sand jig" or "sand dance", performed as a series of shuffles and slides on a sand-strewn stage. The most prominent sand jiggers of the 19th century were two women, both born in New York in 1855: Buffalo native Kitty O'Neil and her Manhattan-born rival Kitty Sharpe Sand dancing was a staple of minstrelsy, variety and vaudeville, and was kept alive in later decades largely by African-American tap dancers, including John Bubbles, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Sammy Davis Jr., Harriet Browne and, most prominently, Howard "Sandman" Sims.