Prior knowledge based stream of consciousness played an active role in my reading and interpretation of the excerpt the esteemed Professor Brown created. African Americans have been plagued with identity issues since the long and tedious journey over troubled waters into captivity and the 1930s is no exception. Dance, however, is a perspective that is overlooked in common readings second to music and I am gladdened to be enriched by such data. Black female dancers faced somewhat of a triple jeopardy as they strategically courted with issues of identity, discrimination, and the suppression of self-expression.
During this time period of rapid transition there are juxtapositions as well as correlations between the experience of dancers and the experience of the African American people at large. The discursive effort of self-representation, of re-figuring themselves individually and collectively was an immense one. From an AA religious standpoint, we have elite scholars like Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham publishing works on the politics of respectability where women are encouraged to hyper- acquire middle class values to counter the cultural beliefs that they were sexual, mal-dressed, lacking religion, and uneducated. They needed to counter the notion that Blacks were not children to civilization. On the contrary, with dance, we have performers attempting to be creators and not conform to the standards of dance set before them by previous black dancers. To have the ability to create and have their creations respected was the middle class right dancers sought.
I think that’s about it.
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