Hallie Gammon - DANC 0163 - The History of Black Dance in America/What is Black Dance?

It was interesting to read the "History of Black Dance" article before the "What is Black Dance?" article, since the former seemed to assume that it already knew what black dance was in order to describe its history - that is, it took all of history and then filtered out everything that didn't fit its definition of black dance - whereas the second article started from the standpoint of the history of dance and then tried to construct a definition of black dance from it. I found the first article more helpful and informative, perhaps because of this certainty of what it was describing - the unspoken assumption is that "black dance" is dance developed by African Americans.

The second article is much more nebulous and never answers its own question. According to some, black dance is indeed dance by African Americans, but for others, not all such dance qualifies as black - if, for example, it is not "expressive" or "culturally specific." Black dance may even be any dance "revolving around themes inspired by black history" - which seems to imply that black dance could be danced by people who are not ethnically black. To me, all these definitions seem plausible, but the bigger question is whether it is even useful to try to define "black dance." I agree with the statement that "it becomes pedantic to try to figure out exactly what is black dance and what is white dance." The terms are simply too broad.

I particularly disagree that “in order to meaningfully describe what black dance is, one must first ask the question, ‘what is white dance?’” This points to an approach of describing black dance in opposition to white dance, but first of all, you wouldn't define the adjective "black" as "not white" - that is indeed one of the qualities of black, but it is far from a complete definition. To define black by what it is not, you would have to list off every color in the rainbow besides black. Similarly, to say that black dance is "not white dance" is hardly complete; it is also not Native American dance, nor Asian dance, etc. Although it is true that some elements of black dance did develop directly in opposition to white influence (during slavery, for example), this is not the whole story. Many of the elements reflect dances native to Africa that developed far away from white influence; though they frequently do not occur in white dance, it is not because of this that they do occur in black dance. If we are trying to define black dance, I think it is much more productive to find the elements that are included in it rather than excluded from it. Either way, however, I agree that "trying to define what black dance is limits our ability to appreciate how extensive the African diaspora is and to accept what could be a broader picture of who we as African Americans really are."

Implicit in that statement is the recognition that the term "black" encompasses a huge range of cultures and identities. Although these articles only deal with black African Americans, the term can also apply to other members of the African diaspora and to black Africans themselves. All these attempts at definition also seem to operate to some degree on the assumption that there is such a thing as an "African culture." I find this implausible: Africa is the world's second-largest continent and very probably the longest inhabited by humans, and so has been home to many different cultures and civilizations with their corresponding traditions. Although we can draw similarities among them the same way we can find common elements among different European cultures, there are necessarily elements specific to each group. The move to establish "African" as a cultural identity in and of itself is relatively recent, dating to the colonial and post-colonial period. Slavery in the U.S. was already underway prior to this movement, meaning that black slaves probably came from many different backgrounds and had their own rituals and associated music and dance traditions. I imagine that the pressure of being identified and discriminated against based on skin color alone led to the melding of these different cultures into a broader "black" identity, but to me, talking about "African dance" leading directly to "black dance" gives the simplistic impression that African dance was a single, definable thing, when it actually came from many different backgrounds. I think this is the misconception referred to when he mentions "what could be a broader picture of who we as African Americans really are."

In sum, while I think the approach of the first article - looking at dance as an integral part of the history of African Americans - can be useful, I don't think trying to define exactly what "black dance" is will be helpful to anyone, black, white or otherwise. If we accept that "any dance of any sort being made by an American choreographer today has definitely been influenced by African American culture. So it's all in a sense black dance," then we can see that what we're trying to define has already permeated dance as a whole so thoroughly that trying to separate it out would be like chasing ghosts.

"The History of Black Dance in America"

In the intruiging article, "The History of Black Dance in America" by Shantella Sherman, the functions, characteristics and the developments of black dance(s) are addressed. According to Sherman, American dance of today is originally taken from African dances from the days of slavery.

Usually, when slaves were on plantations, they danced to express and to alleviate their hardship- even though it was forbidden. Later in the 1700's, dance was often a form of entertainment and a motion of victory. Hence, the development of the 'cake walk.' The 'cake walk' performed by plantation slaves was one of the first influences on 'white' dance. Thus, the 'Waltz' was the white interpretaion of the 'cake walk.' The black dance called the 'turkey trot' also evolved the 'Castle Walk,' performed by whites.

As time went by, black dance became more 'polished' and its interest was more viberant. Blacks who moved from the south to the north after WWI were eager to flaunt and share different dance moves gained from other communities. Thus, dances like, the 'Charleston' and the 'jitterbug' were all shared amongst blacks as they migrated.

Even though African-Americans were considered to have 'innate rhythmic ability,' they faced some discrimination into 'white' dances, like, Ballet. Blacks were seen to have primitive physical features, such as: wide hips, wide feet and non-streamlined bodies. Despite this obstacle, there were prominent black ballet dancers like Arthur Mitchell et al.

By the late 1960's, with the aid of the Black Power Movement, African cultural dance was embraced. Some dancers went abroad to extensively study native African and/or Carribean dances and opened dance studios teaching cultural and polished versions of black dance. The pride of being black derived dances like 'the bump', 'the hustle' and the like.
The creation of music videos in the 1980's- highly inspired by Michael Jackson, also evolved new black dances like 'break dancing.'

With all this said, there is no definate definition of "Black Dance" even though there are characteristics like, bent knees, being bare feet, having a slightly arched back and exuding lots of energy. But according to Donald Byrd, any dance of today can be called 'black dance' as it most probably has been influenced by the African-American culture.

-Darkowaa Adu-Kofi
Dance 0163
"The History of Black Dance in America"- response 1
Instructor: Christal Brown