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.