Black Dance By: Mona Quarless

Black Dance is a very interesting topic. The two comments which resonate the most with me were those of Reggie Wilson and Joan Myers Brown. Wilson states that his dancers faced social expectation as audiences expected them to perform hip-hop and Brown states that Black dance is characterized by Black dancers regardless of talent or genre. To me dancing has always been a release and has been something my family and I have done since I began to walk. It has been an intricate part of my upbringing that, ironically I have not paid close attention to until reading this article and its points on dance and Black culture. From my parents enrolling my sister and me into dance courses at the age of 3 to going to parties on Midd’s campus; dancing is something that I love to do, but also realize it’s something that others expect me to know how to do. Being black and being a good dancer is seen as synonymous in the eyes of many and although at times it seems as a complement it can also be a strain. Wanting to go to a party or audition for a piece and not wanting people to think (assume) I will be popping and locking is important to me. Granted most of the parties we attend is filled with rap, and Pop songs who beats scream stunted movements, I wish people could see more than that when they see me.

The article’s segment on physique was something that truly hit home for me. Growing in the south with parents of West Indian descent it is normal and genetically embedded that my body would resemble that of a coke bottle or curvaceous being. This reality is one that dancers and professors knew and accepted as a fact of the matter. They were focused on technique and talent. With the two T’s later came poise and the body’s natural reaction of molding itself into a – machine. However such a reality was shaken and questioned once I moved to New York City. My sister and I auditioned for multiple dance companies who stated that we were talented beyond our years but our, more specifically my physique was not that of a “dancer,” statements that brought an end to my formal dance training.

As a child I remember every Saturday morning my dad putting on his records and trying to teach us the jive or the hustle, dances that truly took technique. Or even my mom swinging my sister and I around; between her legs doing a leap frog, things we all thought were simply fun were truly and art . The articles brought to life the history of dance and how many of its “routines” or new “crazes” came about. Looking at the dance moves of my present time and of my parent’s times I see startling similarities. Dances such as the mash potato have been manipulated and are now called the toe wop, dances such as the running man have been put in reverse and called “jerking.” To me the dancing world has a circular pattern to it, and the more people think they have discovered, the more they have actually revived.