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.