abstract:"Catfish Row", originally titled "Suite from Porgy and Bess", is an orchestral work by George Gershwin based upon music from his famous opera. Gershwin completed the work in 1936 and it premiered at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia on January 21 of that year, with Alexander Smallens conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra.
When, in the second part of the show, Bess joins a row of Catfish ladies in a dance, we see not a reformed Bess suddenly dancing but a Bess who is learning to dance in a new way, and learning to like it.