Vanessa Evers; The Challenge of Dance; DANC 163

The intricate connection between dance and spirituality within the African slave culture in the United States partially explains the fact that African dance traditions and rhythms were so carefully preserved. Further, the author, Stuckley, emphasizes the fact that slaves did not differentiate between secular and spiritual life. Stuckley says that dance and spirituality survived in spite of the experience of the Middle Passage, but it is clear that the spirituality of dance was indeed necessary for psychological survival. Although the author seems surprised that various dances with roots in traditional African dance were disseminated across America, it is only natural that people suffering to that extent would struggle to preserve a sacred, unspoken language that they could own.
There is an obvious parallel between this article and the emergence of Clowning in poor, urban areas. The same sense of isolation, misunderstanding, and suffering pervades these two circumstances, suggesting that dance is an inevitable consequence of social exclusion of a group. Both cultures integrated spirituality, social outlets, and group inclusion in their significance of dance. Are all forms of dance originally a product of a need to communicate and belong interpersonally in the face of suffering?
The misunderstood aspects of slave dance, such as the Ring Shout, are symptomatic of the general dehumanization and lack of understanding of the slaves. Slave dances were interpreted as “dirty” or “vulgar” because of the integration of hip movements. This level of misinterpretation about the meaning of a highly spiritual, sacred act as sexualized and obscene is also mirrored in the over-simplification of the prohibition of leg-crossing during the Shout. The fact that slaves integrated this modification into the dance, which in turn was combined with various forms of white dance, reveals the ugly irony and perseverance of the preservation of slave dance. Further, the continued practice of the dance, even in a modified form, is a strong example of slave rebellion in day-to-day life.