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
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