Black Dance and the White Audience

Ms. Nixon’s article was very interesting and triggered many different sentiments in me about dance in mainstream America. I feel that ‘dance’ has become something that is directly related to popular music and dance crazes in the United States and operate like fads; this week they are in and the next week they are out. Artists nowadays have to be triple threats: singers, dancers, and actors. There is no longer a respect for the beauty and power that comes with completely mastering one art. Now granted double and triple threats save industries a bundle and the return revenue is multiplied but I feel this attitude saturates the art’s arena and true professionals do not receive recognition. With age comes realization and for me I have realized that true art is hard to find. Today autotune rules the music world and pop locking and dropping rules the mainstream entertainment dance world.

Another issue I have begun to pay attention to is how the entertainment industry exploits art forms. When MTV or VH1 “discovers” a dance craze that has been in existence in American subcultures and communities for ages they generate a profit from pinning a face to the latest phenomenon and then pitching to the world as something NEW. This is done over and over from break dancing, to crumping, to “whining” (correctly spelled wine); things that have existed for years on the streets and in neighborhoods across America. Lately the use of gyrating hips and exotic dancer choreographer have hit air time. From Ciara’s LOVE SEX MAGIC to LADY GAGA to Beyonce’s Sweet Dreams. The “new” chorography includes “technique” that has been practiced in many West Indian communities for ages. Nevertheless since these moves have hit American airways no one can get enough of them. Exposure is something I believe is great, but at what cost. Many of these dances have been saturated in Pop culture when their true origins lie in soca, reggae, salsa, and meringue, something many television viewers have no knowledge of. Television networks will do mini-documentaries on celebrity’s houses however no one will take the time to investigate and spread the knowledge of where the wine came from. The danger in this reality is that it foster’s false ownership and with this phenomenon all that can truly arise is the permutation of ignorance across the nation and the world.

Mona Quarless