The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a staple of my high school education. In virtually every history class I was enrolled in, the class discussed its effects on society and the major people involved in the movement. However, while the curriculum provided a general overview of the golden era, a large majority of the names mentioned were either writers or musicians, never dancers. Some of the best kept secrets mentioned in History of Black Dance: 20th-Century Black American Dance weren’t even listed in my textbook. Reading about such heavily influential people like Buddy Bradley, Pearl Primus, and all of the other performers listed, made me realize that just because they weren’t Langston Hughes or Louis Armstrong, doesn’t mean they weren’t a vital part of the Harlem Renaissance.
Kyle Abraham
Even in and after this period of intense cultural flourishment, the black community continued to face a ton of societal hardships. Choreographer Kyle Abraham incorporates elements of this history in his works “The Watershed” and “When The Wolves Came In,” linking the Civil Rights Movement to both. In addition to a such a powerful historical allusion, the artistic vision offers a very interesting glimpse into the mind of the choreographer. Abraham states: “when you put [a] Black body on stage with any other dancer, the story shifts based on the history that whoever is watching it has already experienced…if you’re seeing a Black body and a white body, a Black man and a Black woman, and Black man and a white man – all of those things have their own kind of politic to them.” To get a better understanding of what Abraham was trying to execute, I went to YouTube to see a clip of his choreography.
The dancing was intense. Acrobatic moves, flowing motions, and rigid shifts in position really drew me in. But Abraham’s point of the “black body” enhancing the performance is clearly shown. The doubling and synchronicity of a black man and a white man certainly kicked up the intensity a great deal. Likewise, when a black woman was alone on stage in front of a projected image that said “WHITES ONLY,” the emotion that resulted was undeniably powerful. It was at both of these moments in the routine that had my peak attention compared to the other scenes I saw, so Abraham certainly succeeded in his terms of what he wanted to depict.
With all of this new information, I am very excited to see what Thursday’s performance has to offer!
I agree that when we are first exposed to Harlem Renaissance in school, we only learn about musicians and writers so it’s really refreshing to take a slightly different spin on things and look at dancers instead. Abraham’s approach to dance is very interesting since he incorporates so much history in every dance he choreographs. Black and white dancers really contrast each other, in a way, and kick up the intensity by showing racial tensions during specific time periods.
I also had a similar curriculum in high school on the Harlem Renessiance. I agree that there should definitely be more credit for these amazing artists in the dance industry. Although they are put to be very minor in our educational studies, they had a great contribution to the history and background of Harlem itself. Being a place created from the unity and becoming very well known for its expression and artistic movement I believe that there should be more emphasis or mention of them.
I think that the African American Woman on the stage when it says “Whites Only” it builds a type of animosity because of the strict constrictions that African Americans faced after the Civil War. I agree with you that most people do not consider dance as a conventional art form as seen by the lack of room in your text books. I think for myself as well, I knew that dance is art but whenever we talked about art I never thought about dance. I think that until now, in our IDC class, dance was never a factor in my life.