Lighting Moment 8 (LizB)

It is early morning and the light is only just touching the deep denim-colored mountains. Pink, violet, periwinkle layers to the left. Clear gold light emerging from the right. Glittering lights of cars passing by. The bare branches of the tree outside my window are dark and sinewy against the multicolored horizon. The light changes quickly now, pinks melt away, then purples, leaving blue and gold to reign. A few warm lights begin to glow in the windows of cold, dark buildings. Day begins.

Lighting Moment, Week 8-Cat, 360

In my room there is a multi-colored octopus lamp. Because each light gives off a different colored light, it causes my side of the room to have multicolored shadows. Before I cleaned up the nook between my desk and bookshelf, there were three different point-edged, multi-colored shadows all pointing to the little empty patch of wall. It was a little whimsical.

This could be recreated by suspending triangular shapes, either 2-D or 3-D, with fishing line from the grid and lighting it from the front in two different colors. Most of the lights used would probably be on the 3rd or 4th electric. The color of the lights would probably alternate and each pair of lights would be aimed in the direction of a suspended shape. This might not read exactly as it did on my wall, but it would capture the general feeling. It would also be fun to try this with different shapes.

Lighting Moments 6, 7, 8 AV 360

6. I was rehearsing alone in 110 one evening and when I looked out the window, I saw one of the outside lights. Because it was so dark outside,, you could just see the path's light on the silver pole going straight down. If you don't focus too much, it looks as if there is a ball of light settled in the middle of the darkness going shining straight down. Sort of like a UFOs light. I'm can't think of a safe way to recreate the ball of light in the middle of the air, but I would be happy with just having the path of white light coming down somewhere on stage from a par.

7. Because of the orange street lamps scattered on campus, you are sometimes visible and sometimes in the dark at night. Once I see someone coming my way and they hit a dark patch, I get nervous! Ha-ha. To do this on stage, I could have two fresnels from above shining amber light (one on the left side and one on the right side: _O_O_). Thus, if you were to enter onstage from a wing, then there you'd be in the dark, then in the amber light, in the dark, then in the amber light, then in the dark. It could really help to create a street scene or something scary!

8. I was watching the trailer of a new movie coming out where a shot was filmed on an airfield at night. A plane took off and you could see the many balls of light on the pathway. My focus would be on the bright balls of light creating the pathway. It also reminds me of the George Washington bridge in NYC at night with all its bright lights. It makes you feel as if you're going through something highly important and it is pretty electrifying. I could either try to recreate a bridge light pathway or the airfield, but the former might be easier, since getting little lights for the floor may not be a good idea. The only way I could set up these lights would be to have some sort of freestanding structures with bright balls of light, which would then block the wings! I may need to rethink this lighting creation!

Lighting Moment, Week 7-Cat, 360

The other day I was walking to dinner with Liz and we saw a beautiful sunset. The sky was pink melting into a light orange into yellow. The clouds in the sky were colored from fuchsia to a dark periwinkle and added a nice textured look to the sky.

One way to recreate it might be to use the cyc as the sky in the background and the dancers as the clouds. The cyc might not have the color gradation at the same time like the sky, but it could fade from a light yellow through light orange to pink and eventually a deep bluish-purple over the span of a few minutes. The dancers could be lit from the high sides with a dark periwinkle-like color, while the lit from below using a pinkish hue from the shins. The shins would probably be slightly angled up as well. I don’t think any front light would be used since clouds were shadowy.

African Dance in New York City

African Dance in New York City
This article brought forth many of the standing traditions of the present New York culture I have taken for granted. Ever since I was a child I remember attending DanceAfrica in Downtown Brooklyn next to BAM. I recall being excited to take part in workshops but being too shy to perform at the street festival in front of my parents and other attendees. The festival is lively, intriguing and welcoming to all who attend it. From the food, to the clothing, to the music, to the dances, to the boundless street vendors; all contribute to the festival’s one of a kind feel. There is such a spirit of love and genuine nature that surrounds the festival and all of its attendees. It brings such a sense of pride in all those who attend.

One year at my school’s annual Harambee festival one of the dance groups who gained their notoriety from Dance Africa (2005 I think) came to my High School and performed. I remember the sheer adrenaline rush that I felt when I was chosen to take the stage and just dance with the drummers. There was an almost spiritual feel to it to be able to let the drums take you and simply not worry horry u looked but just living and breathing in that particular feeling.

The article also touched upon the topic of Black Power which I find fascinating. It spoke about the dance culture contributed to the new feel and culture that is black America today. However in that same breath I feel the spirit and fervor that was once present in this country in regards to Black, dance, culture and the African Diaspora has waned. The same pride my grandmother and parents had about presenting themselves is a certain way of respect and fortitude no longer shines through. In today’s media dance craves reflect dance moves of our previous generations slightly altered. The sense of genuine talent and laudations of the true artists has decreased. The people in this article through poverty, misfortune and tribulations still persevered and made their mark on the world no matter small. Why is it so hard for the present generation to do the same.

Mona Quarless
Dance 0163

African Dance in New York City

Most articles we have read so far dealt with the African American side of black dance. However, this article was informative in explaining the other side of black dance that is now common in the American society: the African aspect.

It is interesting to note that many dancers who are acclaimed to have revolutionized modern dance actually learnt the basics from instructors who came from Africa. Notable names are Katherine Dunham, Chuck Davies and by extension, Alvin Ailey who got his basic training from Katherine Dunham. I think its an interesting fact that modern dance in America does not have its roots just from the slaves who lived in the south but from the African instructors who toured New York and other parts of America in the early 1920’s.Another exciting thing that I noted was about the type of dances done by Ismay Andrews’ dance company. This was one of the few times I have heard East Africa being mentioned when it comes to black dance.

It is sad, however, that despite all the hard work by the African dancers, most of them died in poverty or saw their companies grind to a halt because they lacked the sufficient funds.

Anthony

Dance 0163

African Dance in NYC

Esteemed Lecturer Brown:

I have some general questions. Why is the dance Theater of Guinea called Les Ballets Africains? After all of our prior readings, that seems like such an oxymoron.

It was kind of difficult to interpret the photograph of Ismay's company in 1950. By this time Dunham and others who followed in her path had worked to legitimate African dance in America but the dancers in the photograph on page 145 chose to pose in exotic,almost primitive, positions. I question whether it was a marketing technique with the director thinking that it is what the general public wanted to see. Ismay Andrews and her dancers have really nice abs I might add.

I am noticing a lot of names of African decent. I question whether they are the director's actual legitimate names or if they made a conscious decision to change them to give the appearance of being "authentic." I was reflecting on the flyers for your dance concert where Eva Asa Asante (something like that) gave a testimonial. I was sitting with Darkowa in Proctor and she was so annoyed that she chose that name because she misappropriated it.

The past two readings have demonstrated the influence of Katherine Dunham as she receives direct quotes or honorable mention in both of them.

Striping the Emperor

I fervently applaud Gottschild’s ability to so succinctly articulate the key components of the aesthetic and to moreover point out juxtapositions of ballet. The title is also very creative. On the other hand I think the decision to compare it to ballet was on the borderline of triteness.

Until reading this article I had not considered the affects of evoking the aesthetic of the cool. By silencing what is considered to be the primary center of expression, the face, the emphases is thusly diverted to the other parts of the body. This results in a heightened importance of the movements that are occurring.

With the aesthetic embracing difference and dissonance, it appears as if the dance form is more true to reality and until the development of modern dance or until its influence began to manifest itself in other styles of dance, it was the sole non-verbal moving art form with the capacity of telling stories.

Having multiple centers with their often counterbalancing tendencies having meaning, the untrained eye almost needs an interpreter to reveal what the movements denote. This article kind of made me think of African Dance as poetry and I see how dance kind of parallels literature.

An interesting thought came to mind while reading. Europeans often went abroad and misinterpreted the dance styles they saw in Africa. I wonder what Africans who had the luxury of touring European countries had to say about the dance styles they saw there. Did they misinterpret them? Did they find them lacking in technique?

I also like how Katherine Dunham was interviewed for this article.

This week's reading was especially informative because so far, we have only studied about the influence of African dance in American modern dance and the African American dancers and choreographers who initiated it through anthropological research or through apprenticeship. It was interesting to read about the former wave of African dancers and drummers who were the first to bring African culture and dance to America. Many of these great artist such as Asadata Dafora, Tonyea masequoi, Chief may, Babatunde Olatunji were the initial members who planted the seeds of African culture in America. The second wave of artist who were mostly african Americans learned through the African artists and they incorporated the African culture with modern dance expanding African American dance form, meaning and identity. For example, Babtunde Olatunji took Chuck Davis in his dance troupe and Chuck Davis had a huge influence from his drumming and dance. Therefore, Chuck Davis has been very crucial in expanding the african culture in america and giving it a positive identity, different from the savage and tribal version. He has had great influences from the african artists and the continent from which they come from. While the african artists brought the culture to America, the african american artists like Chuck Davis played a major role in the African diaspora.

African Dance in New York City

What was interesting in this article was to see how the work of Efrom Odok, Asadata Dafora, and Momudu Johnson maintained its influence through generations of dancers.  Even as new dancers made their mark, whether born in America or in Africa, these choreographers provided an important foundation to the New York African dance scene.  It is also interesting that African dance was so firmly rooted in New York.  The choreographers profiled in this article all came to New York seeking a place where they would find not only an audience for their work but dancers to participate in and appreciate it.  This migration perpetuated itself as the number of African dancers grew, more dancers were drawn to the increasingly strong community.  Also, many names come up again and again, such as Katherine Dunham and Willamina Taylor, illuminating that a few power players made a huge impact on African dance in New York and across America.

Although it was informative to see who were the main choreographers in New York from the 1920s onward, I would have liked a broader view of what was going on socially and politically at the time and how that affected what was going on in dance.  Also, it would have been interesting to know how the particular styles of each of the choreographers listed affected the others in a more detailed account.

African Dance in New York City

This article gave an interesting brief history of African concert dance in America. I was surprised by just how New York-centric the dance world is. I was also struck by the small size and the interconnectedness of the black concert dance scene; people like Asadata Dafora taught many of the biggest names in African dance including Pearl Primus, Ismay Andrews, and Katherine Dunham. The authors did a nice job of providing connections between the dance world and the historical context. For instance, the interest in African dance and music stimulated by the Black Power movement of the 1960's. This interest in African culture was also seen in the formation of the International African American Ballet that sought to educate its members about their African roots.
Martin Breu
Dance 163

Darkowaa A-K; African Dance in New York City; Response 8

I think this article is one of the best we encountered in class so far. I love how we are finally being introduced to the different African countries that contributed to what is now modern dance, through what we call 'traditional African dance'. Now, instead of generalizing 'West African dance' or 'East African dance' forms and not knowing exactly where in West Africa or East Africa these dance forms originated, readers are aware of some of the leading countries: Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ghana, Kenya.

It was great to know some of the African pioneers of African dance being introduced in America, particularly in New York in the early 1920's and 1930's. Asadata Dafora seemed to be the most influential artist from Sierra Leone. He taught several dance and drum artist including Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus and also founded Shogola Oloba. Many of the drummers and dancers he trained, have either formed their own companies or excelled artistically through his training. Tonyea Masequoi, another pioneer from Liberia was also a huge influence as he introduced African dance into college setting in America, particularly Hampton Institute. He and the great Dafora also performed together at New York's World Fair.

In the 1950's to the 1990's, it was amazing to know how influential the Black Power Movement was in African American Dance. The Black Power Movement stood for self-reliance and black pride. Hence, this movement allowed Black youth to search their self-discovery in music and dance of their motherland, Africa. I never knew that African dances were the pivot of political events, college courses and the like. Music by Guy Warren, Chief Bey, Olatunji and African (Akan) culture and religion (in community center, created by Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu) were all taught and appreciated in the United States during this vibrant Civil Rights era.

Its inspiring to know that nowadays, artists like Chuck Davis and Doris Green are dedicated and focused on educating others on African (concert) dance and music. The article explains that besides New York, there are other dance companies that teach African dance, like Chicago, Milwaukee and North Carolina- spreading African dance traditions and African music influences on modern dance.

Despite the brief mention on the poverty and/or financial issues the artists' companies faced, due to the struggles of the dance industry, the artists were nonetheless dedicated to sharing their knowledge, experience and talent of African dance and music. This article was truly inspiring and insightful and created a defined circle of the history of African/African American dance in the United States.

Philippe Bronchtein - Lighting Moments and Reading Responses Weeks 7 & 8

Intellectual and Expressive Blocks:

This article was interesting in the way that it laid out specific reasons that we have trouble expressing ourselves. This is particularly important for artists of all mediums, as their entire vocation is based around the accurate and effective representation of ideas, concepts, emotions, and situations. The two "blocks" that really stood out for me were the first and fourth.

Number one states, "Solving the problem using an incorrect language (verbal, mathematical, visual) as in trying to solve a problem mathematically when it can more easily be accomplished visually."

Number four states that a reason for an inability to successfully express yourself is rooted in, "Inadequate language skill to express and record ideas (verbally, musically, visually, etc...)

As someone who works with both music and dance, it's often important for me to step back and ask myself, "is this concept better served by my music, dance, or both?" Sometimes avenues that are familiar to me, but by no means my forté, such as writing or drawing, could be more effective. The correct choice of medium is the first step in effective expression.

The last reason that the article brought up was that sometimes the vocabulary skill is just not there. The first example that comes to mind for me is when I play jazz. I am not a great saxophone player, and sometimes my ideas for improvising surpass my physical ability on the instrument. Likewise in dance, sometimes I am not strong or flexible enough to execute a movement that is crucial to expressing my ideas. This is the most frustrating Block.

Human Perception:

"It thus seems that our perceptual systems provide us with both accurate and inaccurate pictures of the world Perceiving is a journey through both the real and the illusory" (p. 35).

Although I had a bit of trouble identifying how this article exactly related to dance, I think it is interesting to examine how our Perception works. As exemplified by the half wood/half glass table and the 'looming' experiments, there are certain elements of our perception that are innate. I am much more interested in the elements that are learned. The idea that a square is not a square until we have been taught that it is a square is an indicator of society's impact on the individual.

Another really interesting point was the idea of "tuning out." I would actually disagree with this part of the authors' argument. Although from day to day I might tune out the sound of everyone's feet falling on the street, as a human I also have the ability to focus on it. This is a crucial concept that the author refuses to acknowledge. Focus is the ability to concentrate perception. As humans we do have defaults and presets when it comes to perception, but most importantly, we have the choice to actively focus that perception wherever we desire.



Lighting Moment. Week 7.

I work the closing shift at the Music Library on Sunday Nights.Part of my job is to turn off all of the lights before I leave the library. Several of the lights will flicker a bit before completely going out. This does two things: imply that the lights are broken, and bring about an awareness of shadow.

This would be difficult to replicate in the dance space. There are a two ways that I can think of doing it. Plotting in very fast time shifts between different cues could give the impression of lights flickering. The other option would be to have actual lamps on stage that had been modified to flicker.

Lighting Moment. Week 8

I only have one lamp in my room which is in the back corner right by my bed. It is one of the cheap lamps from IKEA that has move-able lighting fixtures on a rod. Normally I point two lights against the wall, and one at my bed so I can read in bed. The lights against the wall light the room in a very interesting way. One corner of the room is brightly lit while the opposite corner is more dimly lit.

The recreation of this in the dance space would be relatively straightforward. If you treated the stage as a replica of my room and mapped the intensity of the lighting in my room to the intensity of the lighting in the performance space, a similar affect could be achieved.

Reading 8: October 28th, 2009. African Dance in New York City

Yesterday, at dinner, I was talking to a friend about a reading I had to do for my Anthropology course. More than talking to him I was inquiring him about something that has been in my mind and that this reading (for my Anthropology course) made it necessary to find a solution. The subject of the reading has nothing to do with the dance reading but I thought that the explanation my friend and I came up with shows the same phenomena in two aspects of American society. My initial question was why the United States, having been British territory, doesn’t follow what it seems to be an inevitable destiny of ex-colonies to be developing countries. My friend pointed out something very important about American history and it is that this territory was not as any other colony, meaning that the British came to this land to reestablish their model and not steal natural resources and impoverish natives. They pretty much killed all the natives and started over. Thus, the United States of America became a synonymous of a “New beginning” for people from all over the world. I am sure that if we ask the US citizens of our Middlebury community almost all of them will have a family member who is not a US citizen.

This environment made it possible and attractive for Black dancers to start performing the dances that demonstrated their African heritage. Whether they were former slaves or immigrants, they found it possible to show the recently born culture that “dances of Africa hold enormous potential for the modern concert stage.” The process that former slaves had to go through in order to be able to get to this point created new dances as the original forms had to be changed due to oppression. However, after the abolition of slavery and their slowly integration to the American society the dances became a representation of their race, that was seen as exoticism in white people’s eyes. It has been a common desire of Black people to make people change the way they saw Black dance as much more than pure exoticism and more like a way of life, a serious dance that was equivalent to ballet. This struggle responds to a much broader problem of defining what is part of American culture and what is not. The Black power movement was the Black’s community response to this process and their attempt to legitimize what they were doing as part of that American culture. Dance played an essential role in these historical changes as it was one of the things that best represented Black culture.

Personally, when I think about Black dance as always think about the music and how Black dance marries the music and the dance. The International African American Ballet hold the idea that the dancer has to know how to play the rhythm he or she is to dance and that the musician has to know how to move along with the music he or she is about to play. This is something that I, as a young classical guitarist who still has a long way to go, find revolutionary. The engagement of the whole body in the process of making music is something that I have taken for granted and thus, undermined its importance to the result of my work. It is physically impossible to dance and play the guitar at the same time (at least the way I do it) but in the process of finding bridges between these two I am hoping to gain a better understanding of the Black dance legacy and my musical aptitudes.

Gabriela Juncosa

DANC 0163

Sophia Levine, Dance 360, Reading Response 8

"Human Perception"
This reading emphasizes that perception is a hugely complicated act that is only synthesized through a number of factors. The the themes that were most interesting to me explored the themes of nature and nurture and of stability and change within perception. In the discussion of nature and nurture as elements of perception, I was struck by the simple but profound conclusion that the authors come to: that, “perception will always be judged in relation to other stimuli in the environment and to past experience”. This relates closely to my senior work. Our present experience is dependent on our context but also our history. Within the theme of stable and changing, there was a lot of talk about movement and physical perception. The authors write, “Perception must sketch the outline of a stable, dependable world and also alert us to change.” Our bodily experience of the world is very sensitive to stability and change, and as such, it seems an ideal medium through which to explore how perception is deeply connected to the environment and past experience. Yay article for helping me better understand my work!

Vanessa Evers-- DANC 163--African Dance in New York City

It is not surprising that a city like New York City that is so full of different cultures and ethnicities is the center of the African dance movement in the United States. I was not expecting, however, that so many different dancers and companies have specialized in African dance since the early 20th century. As early as the 1920s and 1930s, dancers and choreographers such as Efrom Odok, Asadata Dafora, and Momudu Johnson were bringing African dance to New York City. These early influences must have been met with weariness and fear due to the xenophobia and ignorant perception of the African continent as primitive and wild at the time. Thus, it is extraordinary that these dancers gained enough popularity to remain an active presence and pave the way for future artists in the 50s and onward to today. The presence of this type of dance raises the question, how did these traditional types of African dance influence the other types of dance (black dance or even ballet) that were simultaneously using New York as their centers for creativity? In a city that is constantly exchanging ideas and trends, the existence of African dance must have had an effect on other styles, and the other styles presumably influenced African dance as well.

I also thought it was interesting to see how in the 1960s, the African American community started to view African dance as a form of “self-discovery” (Heard and Mussa, 5). The civil rights movement inspired African Americans, especially those involved in the Black Power movement, to take ownership of their African heritage and to view African dance as an “ancient, precolonial” form of their culture. It is interesting the reclaiming of racial identity in a context like New York that is so different from a very distant heritage of African decent would motivate people to feel more connected to the culture of their ancestors. While creating and taking ownership of a contemporary racial identity, these individuals also built off, discovered, and celebrated a buried and disconnected part of their background.

“Human Perception” (LizB)

Being a teaching assistant in Andrea’s beginning dance class has been particularly valuable to me because it has forced me to return to sensation, the fundamental basis of movement and dance. For this reason I was interested in Moore’s use of the concept “tune out” to describe how we ignore repetitive stimuli. Of course this “tuning out” of certain sensations can be useful at times, but it can also distort our body image and prevent us from becoming fully aware of how we perceive the world around us. Our awareness is selective and a deeper understanding of how the body perceives the world allows greater freedom of choice in where we choose to direct our attention. One of the challenges I am currently facing in rehearsals is how to instill an awareness of sensation in my dancers. This is particularly difficult given that many of the states I am asking them to embody are purposefully unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Personally, I often avoid vulnerable or uncomfortable states by defaulting to highly physical, muscular movement. Thus, I have been forced to heighten my own awareness of my habits in order to bring out the qualities I am seeking in their bodies. In our last rehearsal we did vocal exercises and this seemed to deepen our awareness as we explored how sounds fill and vibrate different parts of the body.

I was also interested by Moore’s discussion of how individual perception is informed by one’s cultural context, as each culture demarcates its own range regarding what falls within the categories of real and illusory (Moore 36). Which leads me to question: to exactly what extent can we trust our perceptions? A significant part of my choreographic project is to explore multiple ways of perceiving an event and what happens when the event is decontextualized and deconstructed. “While creativity rests on the ability of the individual to see things differently, civilization itself rests on social agreements as to what is real and what is illusory” (Moore 37). I believe that the dancing, performing body has the potential to place the neat divisions drawn between reality and illusion in jeopardy.

Human Perception- Cat 360

I found this reading interesting, especially when stating the different theories of perception. I think the most relevant idea for me is "Perception is never disinterested."(pg 40 & 44) I like this statement because it's true, and I never thought about it. There is a reason we take the time to perceive things. We may decide after we have taken the time to process something that it isn't worth remembering, however initially it was interesting for one reason or another. In choreographing or watching choreography, I feel like perception is everything. The way one judges choreography is based on how much it interests him or her. Perhaps their interest in a piece comes from how willing their senses are willing to decode what each is experiencing. Whether or not a person likes a piece of work depends on how they perceive it. That was probably a bit of tautological thinking, but in short I really liked that statement because it really made me think.


I also agree with the statement "Surely some of the pleasures of living arise because our perceptual systems do not bind us irrevocably to what is real." (pg 35) How we interpret relationships between dancers or the situation the dancers are in based on their movement is a large part of the "magic" of dance (Sorry to make that corny statement.) Being able to escape from reality or see the world in a different way are two reasons why some people enjoy going to artistic events. Although it can be beautiful or intriguing to see people moving their bodies, humans have a natural tendency to interpret what they are seeing past what the reality is in front of them. It's amazing, and certainly enriches life that we can come up with these interpretations based on what we perceive, and that we all have different perceptions.
Life would be very droll without the differences in perceptions.

African Dance in New York City

I appreciated this article as a concise overview of prominent players in the African dance movement within the United States. However, I would have liked to have the article delve more into the political and social complexities of Africa as a representative body, both artistically and politically, within black American expression. With Charles Moore, for instance, who’s training with Katherine Dunham as well as Asadata Dafora, begs a deeper question of how these forms interact, compliment or maybe even conflict with one another. With literature from Africa, there are similarities of structure and content, particularly that written in English, responding to imposed identity, form, etc. With dance that is coming out of East Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, that have these European influences, I would be interested to know how much of these dances retain their historical properties, and meaning, and how much are subversive, or responsive to invasion and inculcations of external cultures. How do varying African culture and language respond to the generalization and grouping of expression under on umbrella of “Africa,” what does that mean. Is it silencing? As black dance forms sometimes seem to honor that ambiguity, in various forms, how does African Dance and expression retain an identity that is separate from this, or should it? …this is a very consciously inserted tangent….
Reiterating the over arching questing of “what is black dance”, this article further examines the prominence of dance companies and pioneers that focused primarily on presenting continental dance traditions and forms. Prior to this, much of our reading has had the task of defining and categorizing elements and forms of black American and diasporic dance, which due to its transplantation, syncretism, fusion and evolution within modern and post modern culture, can be difficult to identify. Further discussions on form and aesthetic complicate this matter even more, confounding the identities of expression and art that materialize from history and creativity. The predominance of African dance and its political and social connections to American dance forms, particular during and after the civil rights period, is an interesting juxtaposition and interaction. Evident across literary, musical and even linguistic canons, the emergence of African form and voice gives some context to some of these origins of the movements and choreography coming out of America.
New York City, as a center of immigration and domestic migration, particularly from the south, coupled with the renaissance movements in Harlem with dance, literature and music, provides an interesting archive of black movement and definition. African Dance, whose focus is seems less on recreation and definition, but rather appears to seek representation and clarity. As Africa is not simply on entity (as the Americas and other competing imperialistic powers constructed it as, both within the continent and in reference, and as America’s pluralism is more evident,) it is necessary to acknowledge these forms and reforms- their relevance, both politically and socially.

Reading 8- African Dance in NYC

Ele Woods

This week's article written by Marcia E. Heard and Mansa K. Mussa was an indepth description of the various dancers and companies in New York City from the 1920's to the present. The article provided a lot of factual knowledge about the dance companies but not much analysis. Still I felt by reading the article I got a good general overview of what the dance companies were like through the various years. 

One thing I noticed was that a few names kept on coming up. Other dance studios and dancers were mentioned and talked about but it seemed the authors always came back to Katherine Dunham and Asadata Dafora. Even though the reason they were probably mentioned so many times was because they were amazing dancers, coreographers and innovators, their repetition also shows how limited Black dancers options were.  Because of this observation I would have liked the article to speak more of the social contexts. As we have learned in class, it was extremely difficult to gain notoriety or even training as a Black dancer. I would have liked to learn more about how these people were different, and how they were able to make such progress in such a backwards world.

I really enjoyed reading about how some of the dance schools like the "International African American Ballet" made the dancers dance with instruments and made the dancers learn how to play the drums. I thought back to several instances in our class room where a higher understanding of music and polyrhythms would have helped immensely with our dancing. If the dancers can play the rhythms  then surely they can find and dance to several of them at the same time. Unfortunately for me I am terrible at the drums. 

African Dance in New York City: DANC 163: Ricky Chen

The article "African Dance in New York City" by Marcia E. Heard and Mansa K. Mussa is a concise and straightforward overview of African dance companies and prominent African dancers in New York City. It is interesting to note that while some African dancers brought their African influence straight from first-hand experience in Africa, dancers like Ismay Andrews recreated African dance from research and knowledge as a student of Asadata Dafora. Thus, African dancers did not necessarily mean dancers who are African, but artists who are able to tell a comprehensive tale of African culture and spirituality through dance and music. 

I find it interesting that some African dance companies require their dancers be drummers as well because "they thought it important all members of the company be able to play the rhythms they were dancing as well as to dance the rhythms they were playing." In my senior year of High School, I was invited to accompany a Shostakovich piece in a modern dance performance. I was allowed to rehearse the dance routine with the dancers, and after the exposure to dance, I realize how important it is to understand both the dance and the music because they complement each other. During the performance, I could visualize the music by watching the dancers and it was amazing to feel the music and the dance interact with each other. While during our dance course, we sometimes find it difficult to match our movements with the rhythm and the music, but when it comes together, it is an amazing feeling.

Liz Edouard/Danc0163/African Dance in New York City

The excitement and the energy of New York bring many people to this famous city and African dancers are no exception. Reading the chapter by Heard and Mussa, I noticed the diversity and wealth of Africa dance that arrived in New York City between the 1920s and 1950s. While at first the dances and the influence came from West Africa, it quickly spread to include the entire African continent.

I find it interesting that a dancer such as Ismay Andrews who danced West African (Sierra Leone) dances and had never traveled to Africa chose to use East Africa has her base when re-creating dances. While the article covers many artists, it fails to go into much depth when describing each artist and left me with many questions. For example, Ismay Andrews is described, as enjoying tremendous support, having her own dance company, and organizing many performances yet she died in poverty, is an important part of her story missing or is such poverty as an African dancer typical in that time period? Also when reading that Toneyea Masequoi was known for his use of stilts, I was perplexed as I had never thought that stilts were associated with African dance. Are stilts used in dances from Liberia? Another question with regard to Olatunji and Chief Bey- where are these artists from? They are incorporated into the text seamlessly as they have made contributions to the movement of African dance, however they seem from this article to have made an entrance almost out of thin air onto to the dance scene.

I highly respect the effort of the International African American Ballet to incorporate education about each area and dance into class work. After seeing INSPIRIT, I believe that having a personal connection with the dance and a deeper understanding of its roots allows the artist to perform at a higher level. Do most choreographers teach the background of a dance before teaching dancers the movements in a piece? In this case, learning about the area of Africa gives the artists the opportunity to have a different understanding and relation to what they are performing.

Hallie Gammon - DANC 0163 - African Dance in New York City

Whereas many of the articles we have read so far have discussed the somewhat nebulous concept of "black" dance, this article at first appears to be fairly decisive in its criteria when it chooses to talk about African dance. The first examples it gives, including Asadata Dafora, give the impression that the authors are focusing exclusively on dances that are in some sense "transplanted" directly from Africa - they say that these artists "taught dances from Nigeria and Sierra Leone." However, as the article continues, it becomes fuzzier what exactly the authors mean by "African dance" - by the end, they refer to "the most celebrated African dance company permanently based in New York" as one that "combines martial arts, Horton- and Limón-based modern dance, and African dance techniques." This fusion seems to be characteristically what we have been talking about as "black dance." Perhaps I'm just arguing semantics, but it seems to me that talking about "African dance" implies a much stronger, more direct link to an African heritage than what Gottschild called "Africanist dance" - that is, saying that something is African implies to me that it has come out of Africa essentially unchanged and is being taught in its original form, whereas "Africanist" suggests African influences utilized in a more personal and innovative style. However, I can also think of arguments to contradict this: we talk about ballet as a "European" dance although we certainly don't mean that it hasn't changed since it left Europe to come to America. Perhaps one of the biggest barriers to understanding and talking about dance is spoken and written language itself, since it is so inherently different from the language of the body.

In any case, it is interesting to see the overlap among artists that this article classifies as specifically African and those whom we have talked about as examples of artists creating black dance - the article mentions several artists, including Ladji Camara and Charles Moore, who studied with Katherine Dunham. Others also studied and worked with Pearl Primus and Alvin Ailey. Although there is certainly crossover between the group of artists discussed in this article and those we have previously studied, I think they represent somewhat different philosophies: the one group seems to be very intentional about harkening back to explicitly African roots and using these very authentic steps, rhythms and music in their work, while the other group, while acknowledging the same sort of African influences, has as a primary goal to create their own original form of dance that necessarily and often intentionally recalls their heritage. While the result might often arguably be the same, I see two distinct approaches to creating dance in a black/African/Africanist paradigm.

Response 8: African Dance in New York City

JJ Janikis
DANC 163

New York City is the home for many great artists and performers including those in African Dance. Maricia H. Heard and Mansa K. Mussa present the influence of African dance in New York City through a historical perspective. The tradition of African dance was kept alive through the passing of technique from teacher to student. While the teacher was the source of education and training, many of their students created their own companies and studios based on the technique of the teacher fused with their own style of African dance.
Heard and Mussa suggest that African dance became popularized in New York City in the 1920’s- 1930’s primarily with the work of Asadata Dafora. Dafora, born in Sierra Leone, had a profound influence on African concert dance and the introduction of African drum rhythms. His company would train future African dancers such as Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus.
The civil rights movement in the 1950’s- 60’s had a profound impact on African dance. Heard and Mussa explain that “the Black Power movement […] brought many African American youth in search of self-discovery to the music and dances of Africa” (145). Therefore, African dance became further popularized a vehicle of “recognizing” ancient cultural roots. Dancers such as Guy Warren introduced records of African music for dancing such as his “Africa Speaks, America Answers!” album. Many students were continually creating their own style and starting their own companies such as Ladji Camara who is known from bringing the d’jembe drum to the U.S. (149). More and more black dancers were taking action in the education and culture of African dance.
Today many African dance companies based in New York are internationally recognized. Dance companies such as, Forces of Nature, directed by Abdel Salaam continue to be a powerful influence in the foundations of African dance techniques and traditions. Beginning with Dafara in the 1930’s, Heard and Mussa suggest “dances of Africa hold enormous potential for the modern concert stage” (152).

JJ Janikis

Sophia Levine, Dance 360, Light Moment 7

I noticed this my freshman year, but it is definitely worth noting. It is subtle and sometimes difficult to see, but you can find it all over campus. The light bulbs of the lampposts on campus rest directly above the lamps' posts. Because the light from the light bulbs radiates out in all directions, it is obstructed by the post on its way the ground. As a result, the light hits the ground in a bull's eye pattern emanating out from the lamppost. There is a principal of physics that speaks to this property of light, but I have forgotten its name. This could be achieved onstage by obstructing any light source in a similar fashion.

Stripping the Emporer: Africanist Pressence in American Concert Dance

The article Stripping the Emperor, Brenda Dixon Gottschild exploration the relationship between American concert dance and Africanist dance with a specific focus on the perceptions and deceptions of their connectivity. Moreover, Gottschild invokes a greater discussion of the broader definitions of black-white relations in contemporary American society. With the deconstruction of africanist dance forms, namely: embracing the conflict, polycentrism, high-affect juxtaposition, ephebism and the aesthetic of the cool, Gotschild contextualizes a better understanding and evidential exploration in dance form and culture. As a societal construct, dance recognizes political persuasions and power,
Gottschild's articulates the elements of African and American aesthetic, analyzing the various Africanist aesthetic shapes present and reflective within American dance performance. With focus on classical European and American dance forms, she suggests the cultural significance of the Africanist aesthetic in reshaping classical dance, Americanizing it with the development of modern dance and modern ballet. She also explores process through which Africanist presence is seemingly erased. The history of racism and disenfranchisement have great impact on the agency of dance and expression for African Americans, as discussed in precious classes. Performance traditions, such as minstrelsy perpetuate stereotypes, inferiorising and illegitimatizing many black aesthetic forms while simultaneously taking them. The influence of Africanist form on contemporary American dance seems irrefutable.
The presence of Africanist within European American artistic endeavors is present in many modern arenas. Particularly George Balanchine’s adoption of africanist form into his ballets challenges this perceptions of Affricanist form and structure. Over all, the article speaks beyond just issues of dance, creative license and agency, and begs for a greater cultural analysis.

Stripping the Emperor

In her article Stripping the Emperor, Brenda Dixon drives home the point that the Africanist legacy is part and parcel of the modern American art culture. Brenda Dixon carefully traces out how five aspects of the Africanist legacy exist in ballet, which is considered the repository of Western values. The five aspects are embracing the conflict, polyrhythm, high-affect juxtaposition, ephebism and aesthetic of the cool. She does this by comparing ballet to the dance of Earl “Snake Hips” Tucker.

Surprisingly, many people are not aware that there are many similarities between ballet and African dances. As Brenda points out, some people think ballet is about far away from anything Africanist as black supposedly is from white. To make the point even clear, the article discusses how one of the pioneers of ballet dancing in America, George Balanchine borrowed heavily from African dances.

Unfortunately, as Brenda Dixon points out, many people are not ready to accept the fact that ballet has African aspects in it or that Balanchine borrowed from African dancers. Instead they rephrase it as “Balanchine’s works were influenced by jazz”. This has become a way to misname and silence the Africanist legacy.

Anthony Manyuru

Dance 0163

The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance

Stripping the Emperor, explored definitions that have been used to describe dance and proposed new ways of looking at dance, challenging the readers ideas on what the elements of modern social dance might be.

What caught my attention was the idea that American dance, unlike what people would like to believe, has an African legacy that is inevitable as it is the result of a cultural process of joining two cultures together. On the other hand, the tendency of taking practices from the East is a conscious process as it expresses the desire to resemble to that culture, but it is not an imperative process. The reasons for this can be easily traced if we were to trace American history and the role of African slave in the construction of what we know as American culture, and more specifically, dance tendencies.

She presents five different elements that make a clear distinction between what is African and what is European dance. By explaining the differences, Brenda Dixon, highlights those aspects of the dance that we might even think about as Africanist or European legacy.

She describes African dance as an art that embraces conflict and make it part of the expression, instead of dismissing it by quickly resolving it. The idea that African dance is is polyrhythmic has already been discussed in class, when we talked about the democracy of the body. The way in which European dance has chosen to include the different parts of the body in the action itself is describe as a monarchy, and again, we could draw lines between this idea of dance and how the different cultures developed.

High-Affect juxtaposition, ephebism and the aesthetic of the cool are some other characteristics that she talks about that show how African dance is different from Europeans in terms of what is acceptable, what movements are too much, which things might be seen as vulgar and even to what extend the individual engages with the dance. Thus, dance for Africans, is much more than a performance, is an attitude. Maybe that is what makes it so attractive and accessible to greater audiences, as it is a type of dance that is more human and less mechanical.

Gabriela Juncosa

DANC 0163

Stripping the Emperor

Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance by Brenda Dixon Gottschild touched on issues that not only plague the American dance scene but also the social scene. In the beginning of the article she stated and anecdote where a white student asked if she could join the class although she was white. This story brought to light a lot of the self imposed boundaries our countries history of race has instilled in us. The fact that a class, at a university that is open to all paying students is thought to be closed to certain student based on their color shows that there is still a great deal of work that need to be done to eliminate racial ignorance. This incident also shows the reality of the resonating stereotype that all Blacks can dance. Not only that but it also perpetuates the belief that cultural clubs area place for those with high levels of pigment rather that an educational forum open to all in order to facilitate the discussion of multiple issues.

Gottschild also raised the reality that many forget, which is the reality that the American culture has been heavily influenced by the African culture that has been here since the first indentured servant turned slave ship arrived. There is a constant divide that many historians try to make in relation to African American culture and American culture regardless of the fact the two are deeply intertwined. From dances to national customs there is an awe that comes with seeing a African America perform a dance that is thought to be “intriguing.” From the introduction of Snake Hips to the Lindy hop, dances that all caught on and were adapted to a particular style. The reality is as much as historians and researchers try to pinpoint the differences between different demographic they actually ending up uniting them and connecting them more than they expect.


Stripping the Emperor
Mona Quarless
Dance 0163

Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance; Darkowaa A-K; Dance 0163; Response 7

Brenda D. Gottschild avidly believes that Africanist characteristics are present in American concert dances and even in ballet. She explains five principles that Africanist aesthetic embraces and compares that to European dance.

The most interesting of the five principles she explained was that of polycentrism/polyrythm and the aesthetic of the cool. She explains that polycentrism in African dance is highly different from European aesthetic as it involves democracy of body parts rather than the 'stiff' spine centered European dance, like ballet. African aesthetic dance embrace opposing rhythms and respond positively to dissonance in rhythms. Hence, body parts like the pelvis, torso, hands and feet are all involved in African dance, as they all respond to polyrhythms of sounds and music. The aesthetic of the cool is also another interesting aspect of African aesthetic. The 'mask of cool' worn on the faces of African Americans as they danced, showed carelessness and the ease at which the dances were conveyed. Just as the Yoruba believe that a calm face shows purity and wholeness in dance, this is embraced throughout Africanist dance.

Brenda then went on to discuss the similarities of Africanist dances and traditional European dances, and found several similarities. Using Balanchine, a ballet choreographer as her case study. I found this very interesting, as I never believed that such opposite dance forms would ever have similarities. However, Brenda using Balanchine as her case study has some implications. Firstly, he was a Russian immigrant to the Americas. Hence one would argue that he was not born into the typical, traditional European ballet that is strictly opposite from that of African dance. Also, Balanchine worked with Dunham, and she claimed that, Russians had good sense in rhythm. He used a rhythmic approach in conveying his form of 'Americanized ballet.'

One could argue that Balanchine was not a good case study to use as he is an exception to the rules of Ballet. Hence, Brenda found many similarities between ballet and African dance. But on the whole, Brenda articulates that American ballet and even European ballet have some forms and influences from Africanist dance. Brenda does a great job at presenting this argument, but she fails to dwell on the fact that African dance was not the sole contribution to the similarities she witnessed, but other dance forms from other cultures have an impact on American and typical European dance nowadays.

Stripping the Emperor - Kereem Morgan 163

In her essay, Stripping the Empperor, Gottschild grasps my attention when discussing how the “Africanist” aesthetic has had an overt influence on American dance. Based on what I have witnessed throughout my dance experience, I find much validity in her suggestion that embracing the conflict, polycentrism, high-affect juxtaposition, ephebism and the aesthetic of the cool all came from African culture and overtime has been implemented in American dance. In regards to Earl Tucker and his famous Snake Dance, which I looked up online to watch for movement clarification, I can see that Gottschild suggestion is true. Specifically, I think Earl Tucker’s dance had to do mainly with ephebism and the aesthetic of the cool. I strongly believe that in the 21st century, there is still a dominant power over dance – there are those who still dictate (body type, size, race and skill experience) in certain dance arenas. However, I must say that I really do not think that there is an European cultural power dominance over African dance. I think it is time for African dance to take on its own language to become a hub where other dance cultures and forms stem from. In addition, another interesting aspect of this article for me was the overt discussion in regards Balanchine incorporating the African Aesthetic into ballet, which I view as a highly compelling argument that she backs up well with her descriptions. This is a very informative read that I enjoyed encountering.

Sophia Levine, Dance 360, Reading Response 6

Intellectual and Expressive Blocks

Well… okay. I found this article a little frustrating. While it highlighted an issue that is pertinent to the creative process—intellectual and creative blocks—it doesn’t quite suggest solutions. Rather, it deepens our understanding of why those blocks occur. This insight is welcome, but also airs on the whiny side. I was hoping for a more direct approach to the problem of blocks.

In the majority of the article, blocks are described as problems, rather than moments of difficulty that have the possibility of yielding new and uncharacteristic work. The author frames a block as the fault of the “blocked” person. He uses words such as incorrect, lack of, and inadequate to describe the source of a block. Not only does this give the article a negative tone, but it gives the “blocked” person an easy way out. Rather than sticking with their process, they might assume that their process is wrong. They might make excuses instead of working through the block. Or they may discard their work, unable to see the potential that lies within and losing their identity within their work… after all, it was wrong.

But I suppose this is a matter of syntax. The author’s choice to use the source of blocks as a means of framing ways to get through blocks is not a bad one. And the elements of blocks that he discusses are not inconsequential to the solutions we seek. The author writes of problem-solving language, “Visualization, as expressed through the use of drawings, is almost essential in designing physical things well. One reason for this is that verbal thinking, when applied to the design of physical things, has the strange attribute of allowing you to think that you have an answer when, in fact, you don’t.”

Bingo. This idea speaks to me. I find myself often getting caught up in conceptual ideas or verbal description. But the best way to solve movement related problems is embodying the movement itself. Sounds obvious right? But it isn’t! It is really difficult to move through ideas, and therefore, much easier to revert to a more practiced medium—talking. And even if I have embodied my ideas myself, how do I get my dancers to find those solutions within their own bodies? That is a huge question for me right now. And I think that people see that in my work.

Ok, so the article isn’t all bad. The author also highlights the importance of making choices in process conscious to allow you to facilitate. Here’s where journaling and video come in. I have to reinforce what I do on my own so that I can better embody it when I revisit it with my dancers. Good. Moving on.

Another idea that is important to the creative process is the problem of information. The author writes, “I know one extremely inventive engineer who finds it very important to operate with a ‘clean’ mind—he avoids learning anything about previous, related solutions to his problems. However, I know another equally productive engineer who spends a great deal of effort learning everything he can about every previous development that seems even slightly related to his problem (a ‘dirty’ mind?).” The author likes the clean-minded approach and says that in problem solving one should hold information at “an arm’s length”.

This is a really issue that I am constantly negotiating. Do I want to give my dancers all the information (i.e. choreographed movement) or do I want them to discover it themselves (i.e. guiding them through the generation of movement? I am not sure I agree with the author; I came into my project with the clean-minded approach but am moving closer and closer to the dirty-minded approach as I develop my piece. Giving yourself, or your dancers, information to hold onto is not such a bad thing. It is an attachment to purity of individual expression that kept me from moving toward set material (information) earlier. And perhaps, the idea of purity is a “block” that the author faces too.

Response to Intellectual and Expressive Blocks—

This article was filled with interesting exercises that I found helpful in identifying my mental patterns of conscious and unconscious thinking. I’m definitely going to keep the ‘Strategy Notebook’ in mind as I continue on. What has been helpful in the creative process for this duet has been the visualization boards and also my own personal visualization scores of what I see or would like to see happen. Having something tactile available to me during the movement generating process is so helpful. It puts off some of the pressure to always feel like I have to remember every single new movement perfectly because there are images and words cues that lead me back to the sensation of what I was working on. I think this week as I begin to set the improvised material I will continue using these tactile cues to help my dancers remember their material and to understand the underlying emotional thread that is carrying them through this piece.
I found the detail about becoming one’s own ‘facilitator’ wonderful. In the Authentic Movement practice that we’ve been embarking upon in Nature and Creativity what I’m learning to cultivate is my own non-judgmental inner-witness. During the showing, as I stood squirming around trying to watch my duet, I went back to this state of ‘witnessing.’ Witnessing with full intention without judgment gives me a greater sense of clarity and hence, greater facility to edit and modify my own creative process. We’ll see how this practice works for this week now that I have all of the critique sheets back!

Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance: Stripping the Emperor

Ricky Chen

Dance-0163 Christal Brown

Instead of using the vocabulary of European academic dance such as Ballet to define African dance, we must develop a vocabulary that belongs to African dance itself. Brenda Dixon Gottschild condenses the vocabulary into five terms of Africanist movements: polycentrism, polyrhythm, high affect juxtaposition, complimentary opposition and coolness. By defining African dance, we give it existence but not limiting its capacity to grow, develop and incorporate other dance styles and movements. There is no longer the European cultural power dominance over African dance when we develop a language to describe it. African dance becomes a basis of comparison for other dance forms that branch out of it.

            I have always seen these five elements in social dances such as Hip Hop and Break-dancing, movements that are culturally defined as “cool” and socially admired. When these elements are applied to stage performances and incorporated into Ballet, I believe it allows us to see African dance as a form of art and not only as informal movements that we see at social dances. I like that Balanche incorporates Africanist elements in Ballet because we are making these elements more publically and academically admired. These elements are no longer hidden in dance, but rather dance performances are centered on these elements.  

Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance

Florence DiBiase

163-A

Brenda Dixon Gottschild's article delved into the permeation of Africanist styles into American dance. She attempted to classify distinct characteristics stemming from the influence of African culture. These five spheres overlapped and intertwined into a harmonious product that has so greatly influenced American culture. "We are all enrolled in this course" Gottschild asserts, whether we know it or not.

It was very helpful for me to see these characteristic styles in action through the dance of Earl "Snake Hips" Tucker. By watching a video of his performance I was able to further understand what these movements were. I really like the concept of embracing conflict. My experiences as a gymnast have played into this a little as I have learned to balance aggression, power and strength against grace, femininity, and softness. Instead of trying to fuse them into one form, I enjoy having both as part of the sport that I did as well as how I view myself as a character. I have definitely experienced polycentricism as a result of this course, and have learned to control and isolate different parts of my body that I had never previously considered. I like high effect juxtaposition because it spices up dance with undulating rhythms, moods and attitudes. I also think Ephebism is important as dance is an expression of the moving body and youth and vitality allow one to stretch and bend in very expressive ways. Finally, the expression of the cool is important, supplying composure alongside energy. I have demonstrated this again through gymnastics, a look of cool calm collection and grace upon my face as I struggled to complete an intense floor routine or fake ease on the four inch beam.

As far as Africanist styles in American ballet, I think the additions of George Balanchine to the art were improvements. While it is different to classify things as distinctly African in such a melting-pot national culture, these influences are clearly present in the works of Balanchine. He changed the counts and shifted the foci of the body lower to the ground in ballet, adding high kicks and angular arms and wrists. Two styles known to be on almost opposing sides of dance have fused into each other. This, Gottschild asserts is important to bring to light as it is, in most cases, overlooked.

Intellectual and Expressive Blocks (LizB)

This article had a lot of direct applications to my choreographic process. Certainly this idea of choosing the appropriate language for a given situation or problem is relevant to my investigation of what the body can express that verbal language cannot and vice versa. On page 73 the author discusses how verbal language can trick you when applied to the design of physical things. One of the most important things that I have learned is that I cannot simply ask my dancers to take a textual description that I have written and make a dance out of it. Rather we have to go into the studio together and physically do it, and usually it changes in the process. Sure, it may sound great to have dancer 1 throw dancer 2 across the stage, but is it actually physically feasible? To find out, we have to get out of our heads and use our full bodies to solve the problem.

Another expressive block which the author identifies is “the frustration of trying to present concepts in a foreign language over which one has poor control” (pp.81). Technique is necessary for the dancer in order to maximize his/her expressivity and/or ability to communicate through the medium of the body. If a dancer has poor control over his/her body or a limited knowledge of the body in general, then it will in turn limit his choreographic vision. One of the issues that I am struggling with right now is how to teach my dancers to move with clarity and fullness when I am often unable to do so myself. Therein lays my answer: if I am to cultivate this kind of specificity in their movement, then I must first discover it in my own body.

The process of choreographing has also brought my attention to my habits and how they can both help and hinder my creativity. Being able to develop an awareness of the tools available to me has helped keep me from getting bogged down. As the author states, “Our ability as thinkers is dependent on our range and skill with our own tools” (pp. 76). A friend of mine recently commented that “writing a thesis just teaches you how to write a thesis.” Similarly, I view the 360 class as teaching me how to utilize the tools available to me to bring my choreographic ideas to life. Interestingly, on page 78 the author notes that prejudice often causes us to not take advantage of all of the information available to us. This reminded me of something Huer said when we were going over lighting design together during tech rehearsal. Someone asked her what class she wished she had taken in college and she replied “poetry” because of the difficulty inherent in articulating the colors and patterns that make up complex lighting design. Thus, her earlier assumption that written poetry would have little application in her visually, technically oriented craft had proven misguided. In fact, the language of poetry had proven to be the “correct” language for addressing this particular problem.

Personally I like to have as many languages at my disposal as possible. At the end of the article the author weighs the advantages and disadvantages of possessing a “clean” mind versus a “dirty” mind. Personally, I have a “dirty” mind (and you can take that however you wish ;)). My preferred method of working is to first research as much as I possibly can about my chosen topic. Starting with a blank canvas is too intimidating; I prefer to gather as much information as possible and then proceed to draw connections between the materials and distill everything down to its essence. I consider my creative process to be very similar to the process of making maple syrup. First you go out into the woods and tap as many trees as you can. But you don’t just tap any trees, only maples. Thus if your topic is feminist movements in Britain you don’t “tap” sources on male migrant workers in Texas. Once you have gathered the sap from as many maple trees as possible, you then return to the sugar house and mix all of the buckets of sap in one big pan on the stove. You then leave the sap to mix and simmer, until it is boiled down into an entirely new, thick, syrupy substance. This metaphor functions to describe my tendency to gather a bunch of information and then allow it to mix and simmer until I am left with a product that contains elements of all of my sources but is inherently new and different in substance.

Stripping The Emperor

Ele Woods

This essay was interesting for me because of it's descriptive nature. Brenda Dixon Gottschild describes the african dance aesthetic through the example of Earl "Snake Hips" Tucker. Her four headings (Polycentrism, High-Affect Juxtaposition, Ephebism,  Aesthetic of the cool, and Embracing the conflict) summarize this aesthetic. While this article was very detailed, some of the movement that Gottschild was describing was so difficult for me to picture that I had to watch a video of "Snake Hips" to understand what she was talking about.  What really struck me in the video was the fact that "Snake Hips'" dance movements were as much a theatrical show as a dance. I gathered from reading the article that this effect had to do mainly with Ephebism and the Aesthetic of the cool.  I know that this article in conjunction with the video I saw will help me in our lab section due to its great descriptions of body movement. 

Another thing that this article dealt with was Balanchine's incorporation of this African Aesthetic into ballet.  Gottschild clearly explains her argument and justifies it so well that it is almost impossible to question her. Once again her descriptions of the dancers movements aide in the readers visualizations and overall comprehension of her text and thesis; that dance was created for the rainbow and Balanchine attempted to strip the notion that Black people could not dance ballet. Gottschild writes: "we shall see a body, the American dancing body. It is a portrait in black and white."

Anna Briggs - Stripping the Emperor

In this essay, Brenda Dixon Gottschild discusses the influence of the "Africanist" aesthetic on American dance.  She elaborates on how various factors such as embracing conflict, polycentrism, high-affect juxtaposition, ephebism and the aesthetic of cool have originated in African culture and have imbedded themselves in the American dance tradition.  To illuminate the extent to which African dance has become an integral part of American dance, Gottschild uses the example of Earl "Snake Hips" Tucker.  She writes of his awkward but smooth movements, cool expression, and childish playfulness, but with the snippets of description of his dance I still could not entirely picture it.  After finding a video of "Snake Hips" himself dancing online, I could immediately see the point Gottschild was arguing, as well as the reason for Earl Tucker's nickname.  As he waves his hips back and forth, he simultaneously looks like he is going to fall down while being totally in control.  The playfulness was also apparent, as during his dance it as if he is toying with the audience, pushing the limits of their expectations of just how well he can move.

Later in her essay Gottschild discusses the Africanist influence on ballet, particularly in the American tradition as introduced by George Ballanchine.  She details how his incorporation of off-center movements, articulation of the torso, and relation to the ground as opposed to the air have "Americanized" ballet by bringing in Africanist movements.  I found her analysis of Balanchine's contribution to ballet to be very interesting, and I wish I could see an example of his work.  Certainly I understand that ballet, as a dance and as a discourse, has evolved and adopted new styles and aesthetics into its repertoire, but it would be interesting to see a Ballanchine ballet and compare it to a very traditional European ballet.  Would it still have the same feel for the audience?  I would expect it to to some extent, because it is still ballet, but certainly some of the European rigidity has been done away with, so I would be curious to see this in practice.

Intellectual and Expressive Blocks- Cat 360

Here is what I took from this reading: When you have blocks in your problem-solving, you need to assess a few things. First, if one method of thinking about it doesn’t work try another. This moves straight into being flexible about your plan of attack; if it’s not working try a new way. Third, make sure you have your facts straight because if you don’t you will be building on an unstable foundation. Lastly, try to find the right way to communicate to others. This can be frustrating, but by making sure you do not use improper and/or non-descriptive vocabulary you will get your point across.

This is not unhelpful, however it is not entirely helpful either. I think it wasn’t very helpful to me because it simply presented facts and gave light advice as to how to work with our facts. It also embedded the simple message with a lot of examples that seemed very redundant. Another reason that I probably fond it relatively uninformative was because the examples were not applicable to me. I am not blaming the author, I’m just merely noting it. I also disliked the fact that the author repeatedly referred to a company that makes problem solving books. It made me think, “If that company has all of these methods and ways to problem-solve, why am I reading your book?”
I did find the last exercise interesting, and I would like to try, however I cannot see it helping me right now. Perhaps, this reading is simply something for me to take in and stick on the back burner for a later date. Maybe tomorrow during rehearsal I’ll suddenly realize that this is very applicable to my life.

Response 7: Stripping the Emperor

JJ Janikis
DANC 163
20 October 2009

Brenda Dixon Gottschild explains that “Africanisms” pervade our “everday lifestyles, in ways of talking, creating hairdos, preparing food, and acting “hip” and “cool”” (332). Gottschild shows that the “Africanist aesthitic” is defined by: embracing the conflict, polyrhythm, high-affect juxtaposition, ephebism, and the aesthetic of the cool. To illustrate these points, Gottschild uses examples of Earl “Snake Hips” Tucker and ballets of Balanchine to show the contrast of the American/ European and African dance aesthetic. Therefore, the use of “Africanist” contrasts is infused in many aspects of our pop culture.
The Africanist perspective embraces diversity and difference in both music and the aesthetic of the body. Therefore, there is constantly conflict of pairs such as “awkward and smooth” and “detached and threatening” (33). The illustration of “Snake Hips” shows the transformation of the body and the use of “polycentrism” in which multiple parts of the body could be moving in contrasting ways, such as in different concentrated movements in the arms and in the legs. In addition, “ephebism” underlines the “power, vitality, flexibility, drive, and attack” that was innovative and unique to the “Africanist aesthetic” (334). This energy had been “muted” in European ballet tradition. The “aesthetic of the cool” explains the attitude and overall composure of black dance. The attitude of the dancer was to remain detached and unemotional to their vibrant movements. While this seems like it holds true for social dance, it does not seem like a successful approach for concert dance where the dancer must be aware of their emotion to convey it to the audience.
Balanchine uses the “Africanist aesthetic” to produce the “Americanization” of modern ballet. His attention to the contrasts of speed and coolness changed the way ballet was perceived in the U.S. Therefore, Balanchine changed the overall attitude of ballet in America. While Gottschild suggests a direct relationship between the “Africanist aesthetic” and modern dance, I also feel that there is an extent to which the changes in dance were created by the changes in society and the people. The relationship between dance and music allows people to find new ways of expression based on the rhythms in the music. Therefore, one can always find similarities in dance if there is a similar sound in the music, regardless of culture.
In conclusion, it is important to not the American dancing body as “a portrait in black and white” as symbol for the fusion and progression of music and dance in America based on the “Africanist aesthetic” (340).

Liz Edouard-Danc 0163- Stripping the Emperor

Gottschild in “Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance” discusses the Africanist legacy in American culture. While she argues the case for African influence in American culture, this theme can be applied across the world as people have migrated or traveled and incorporated ideas from all over. In South America, there is a constant debate about the Latin American Identity and the need for Latin Americans to accept that their culture is a mix of several influences. Nestor García Canclini uses the term “hybrid” in his book “Hybrid Cultures” to describe the social cultural process of the combining of distinct practices and structures to become new objects and practices that incorporate the distinctive units. While this applies to Mexico where the culture of the country has been influenced by its indigenous roots, colonial powers, and revolutionary period, a parallel can be drawn to American culture, which has taken aspects from all immigrant cultures to become a similar melting pot of cultures. Gottschild captures this idea by saying, “ the Africanist legacy comes to Americans as electricity comes through the wires: we draw from it all the time, but few of us are aware of its sources” as it has become so ingrained in our culture that although we are not always willing to admit it, it is part of the roots of our culture.

The word juxtaposition is used to explain the inclusion of African aesthetic with European ballet and Georgian culture when describing Balanchine’s dance pieces. While I believe that it is a juxtaposition of these forms of dance and/or culture, I feel that by picking out certain styles included within the dance we are limiting the depth of the piece and all its influences. A piece created in the XXth century that has American influence will almost automatically have a wide range of inspiration that contributes to the piece due to the nature of American culture. I appreciate that Balanchine acknowledges the beauty of African dance and the texture it adds to more traditional dance pieces through polycentricism and ephebism, but I somehow wish the influence of other cultures in his movements could have been discussed at least in passing. On the other hand, using the term “Americanization” is more encompassing and when it is used later in the paper, it shows the power of American dance as it becomes a “hybrid” form of dance- unique yet highly complex due to its rich roots.

Vanessa Evers-- DANC 163--Stripping the Emperor

Brenda Dixon Gottschild begins her analysis of the influence of black dance throughout modern American culture by describing a story of a white student of hers feeling out of place when discussing the African Diaspora’s existence in America. Gottschild explains that African culture is actually all around us and unavoidable, even though we are unaware of its influences. This lack of awareness can be blamed on general ignorance about the contributions of African Americans in American culture throughout history. Due to the lack of education about the accomplishments of African American politicians, artists, and leaders, it is no wonder that most of us enjoy and employ several parts of African American culture or American culture that has been directly shaped by African Americans without ever knowing it.
Further, in looking at the various pillars of African influences that Gottschild describes, for example Embracing the Conflict or the Aesthetic of Cool, it is possible that these parts of African influence have become so commonplace that the reason for which the public is unaware of their roots is because it has never known anything different. For instance, the concept of Embracing the Conflict, which encourages asking questions and confronting confusion over resolution, is so central to most art forms that most people would not question where it comes from originally. Further, the Aesthetic of Cool permeates day-to-day life in our desire to seem aloof or juxtapose our frantic internal emotions with our calm exteriors. Since this is a crucial part of normal interaction, it is not a surprise that we do not take a step back and analyze its heritage. The fact that these pillars have become intrinsically linked to American culture reveals the deep influences of African culture that go beyond compartmentalized spheres.
Gottschild goes on to explore the ways in which these aesthetics have influenced specific artists, such as George Balanchine, the main person responsible for the Americanization of ballet. His use of flexed wrists and arms, asymmetry, hip and pelvic thrusts, and torso isolations shows the profound effect that African dance had on his work. This example is not only important because of Balanchine’s fame, but also because his work inspired several artists in the future to incorporate these aesthetics as well, even if they were not explicitly aware of their origins.

Hallie Gammon - DANC 0163 - Stripping the Emperor

This article takes a very clear and reasonable approach to broadening our understanding of "black dance" by defining and exploring "five Africanist characteristics that occur in many forms of American concert dance." She does not attempt to exclude certain forms of dance or imply that a form of dance absolutely must possess these characteristics to be considered part of the black dance movement; in fact, she takes almost the completely opposite approach, arguing that all dance in America has in some way been part of the evolution of black dance. To illustrate that point, she leaps immediately to the form of dance most people would consider to be so far removed from Africanist influences as to be completely untouched: ballet. In fact, most of the articles we've read so far have talked about black dance in strict opposition to ballet. However, Gottschild exposes, in a clear, logical way, how ballet and Africanist dance techniques have come into contact and how, most importantly, ballet has been permanently changed by that contact. I appreciate the connection this makes for us between the kind of dance we explore in class and ballet, since some moves in our warmup routine (like the pliés and rond de jambes, for example) are evidently connected to ballet, and up until this point all the discussion of how ballet is the antithesis of black modern dance has seemed somewhat confusing. It seems much more reasonable to assert that people are simply in denial about the very real connections that exist among all forms of American dance; it would be almost absurd to claim that an art can survive completely untouched in an ever-changing culture.

Gottschild's characterization of the five Africanist characteristics she used in her analysis clarified and codified many of the things we've seen again and again through other readings, videos and our own movement in this class. Some, like polyrhythm and "the aesthetic of the cool," already seemed obvious, something we had a name for, but the others - high affect juxtaposition, embracing the conflict, and ephebism - give welcome labels to trends I had only hazily put together before. Embracing the conflict, for example, harks back most explicitly to the article we read about Yoruba body attitudes, but also recalls the simultaneous violence and camaraderie we saw in the teenagers who were crumping or break dancing, and explains "music or vocal work that sounds cacophonous or grating to the untrained ear" - it gives a name to, and therefore reminds me of the value of, an aesthetic completely foreign to the one I've always been surrounded by. Of all the characterizations of black dance we've read so far, I find Gottschild's the most helpful in getting closer to understanding the essential parts of a complex, widespread and evolving form.

Stripping the Emperor

This article was particularly interesting because when I first came to Middlebury and took a dance class, it was very eerie and peculiar. The dance was something I had never seen before; something I was not at all familiar with. However, as I experienced the new form of dance called modern contemporary, I kept finding my body leaning to my cultural vocabulary and behavior. Cultural dances that my body was familiar with, was similar to the black dance when it came to democracy of body parts and movements. And I feel very connected to the African American influences. Hence, I feel like my body's vocabulary has been culturally developed. My culture has made me connect to African American culture through the use of hip movements in dance. Since the hip movements is vital in Nepalese dance, it has been easier to embrace African dance forms. And my experience in NYC with the city culture, popular culture has also affected my take on dance or how to present it. It was in nyc, where I unconsciously try to pick up the "cool" factor during dance. It is very interesting to see, this factor of "cool" in dance because many of my black and african male friends do have this mien quality, or swag and bring it to the dance floor as well.
Something that completely, took me out of surprise was when I learned that American ballet has African American influence. I am not a sucker for American Ballet or jazz or any dance of that sort, however, something I saw far away and a complete distinction of "black dance" was ballet. It was very surprising and thought provoking that the history of african american dance does go further than I had originally thought and its influences have spread far and wide, even in the most unlikely dance forms.

Stripping the Emperor

Gottschild's article grabbed me with its opening anecdote about a white student being unsure about whether they belonged in a class about black dance. I asked myself the very same question before taking "Africa to America". I have since come to the same realization as Gottschild - that African influences affect everyone whether or not they are aware of it. These influences are not something someone consciously chooses but are ingrained in dance, music and popular culture.
To isolate these influences, Gottschild lays out five characteristics that are defining of Africanist presences: embracing conflict, polycentrism/polyrhythm, high-effect juxtaposition, ephebism, and the aesthetic of cool. All of these characteristics are illustrated by the dancing of Earl "Snake Hips" Tucker, and are contrasted with European ballet conventions. I have seen evidence of all five in the dancing that we have done, but I think I have failed, so far, to capture the calculated carelessness of the asethetic of cool - I look like I am working too hard.
Gottschild continues by showing her reader how these characteristics occur in American ballet especially in the works of Balanchine. Balanchine incorporated movements and rhythms from black dance to create an American style of ballet distinct from the European variety. I thought it was very interesting that Balanchine sent some of his dancers to study with Dunham to allow them to move more freely. Although ballet is considered to be the most pure of the European dances, Gottschild shows that it incorporates these Africanist influences.
Martin Breu
Dance 163

Lighting Moment 6 (LizB)

I was doing my history reading when I came across this paragraph which elegantly captures mood and setting through its description of light:

“The light was full of action and had a peculiar quality of climax—of splendid finish. It was both intense and soft, with a ruddiness of much-multiplied candlelight, an aura of red in its flames. It bored into the ilex trees, illuminating their mahogany trunks and blurring their dark foliage; it warmed the bright green of the orange trees and the rose of the oleander blooms to gold; sent congested spiral patterns quivering over the damask and plate and crystal” (Cather, Willa. “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” pp.4).

This description is particularly rich because it gives us information about the energy/ quality, color and pattern of the light. When Cather refers to the light as having a “climax” I imagine translating that to the stage as a slow build by increasing intensity and layering colors. To recreate a sense of candlelight I would use warm-hued gels that mimic natural light. Referencing our discussion on Friday, it would also be possible to shine light on reflective paper with a fan blowing on it to mimic the movement of flames. Then there is the description of the rose colored blossoms changing to gold; I could imagine rose colored light projected on the cyc slowly turning to gold like the sky at sunset. Then there are the dark “mahogany trunks” of the trees, which could represent props onstage or even still human figures dressed in dark, saturated colors. Finally, there are these “spiral” patterns. To recreate this I would set up overlapping go-gos (because Cather uses the word “congested” which suggests overcrowding) in intricate damask or lace patterns.