Category: Uncategorized (Page 3 of 5)

The very first term of the article “History of Black Dance: 20 Century Black American Dance” bothered me a bit because it was not well-defined to me. What is Black Culture? In Africa, I’m sure each region had its own culture. In America, all African-Americans were bonded by the struggles resulting from their skin color and the gospel hymns sung over a century, from the time of the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement. With freedom to express themselves, Black Culture spawned the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s with dances like the Charleston, Jitterbug, and Lindyhop.

Now, Black Dance seems to refer to more racial diversity in a typically white dance world. “All black musicals disappeared from Broadway in the 1920s when white musicals started to employ more black performers and black dance was incorporated into their programme.” Stars like Josephine Baker, Florence Mills, Buddy Bradley and Arthur Mitchell broke the racial barrier by performing in previously all white arts (musicals, Broadway, American Ballet). This is a step toward including a more accurate representation of a racially-rich America in art.

Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus elevated black dance to be revered as much as white dance. But to do this, they traced black dance to its roots and traditions. This seems to show that Black Dance stems from Africa.

Should art be a melting pot where all cultures mix together or a salad bowl where each style maintains its identity as separate? On one hand, we can make all art racially mixed. On the other hand, we can respect and revere the art of other cultures the same as we do to white American art while preserving the cultural origins and identity. Both approaches are sound. Which one do you think will be most fair? Do we preserve Black Culture, or assimilate it?

Dance to me is a way to express. The movements, music, everything conveys an emotion. Yet we don’t know why and/or where these emotions stem from

The article, “History of Black Dance: 20th-Century Black American Dance“, explores the origins and story behind the choreography as well as the dancers. Dance is a culture and its history told in movements. Especially inspiring is black dance and the story it tells. Many don’t realize that the stem of historic dance trends often stem from Harlem. The oppression and constriction that blacks faced back then did not stop them from expressing themselves. Whether it was enjoy themselves or to get themselves ready to overthrow their masters, the form of dance was a type of freedom that everyone has.  Dancers like Josephine Baker, Florence Mills, and Buddy Bradley are only a few black dancers who are an inspiration to many. They stood behind their restraints and achieved so much.

In the article Choreographer Kyle Abraham discusses “The Watershed” and “When The Wolves Came In”, Quinn Peterson shares the interview with Mr.Abraham. Kylie Abhraham brings up a great point that, “when you put a Black body on the stage, there’s already an inherent story that’s going to be told. And when you put that Black body on stage with any other dancer, the story shifts based on the history that whoever is watching it has already experienced.” As a artists who has achieved a lot, its amazing to see his point of view from the history to the story of dance and its meaning.

These articles allowed me to view a different side to dance and not only the movements but also the story behind each performer. With this background in my mind, watching the video performance gave me a different feeling. It made me view the performance as not just dance but also a story.

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!

Before reading about and watching the clip of the dancers, I truly thought that (what I thought was) modern dance was actually something entirely different. I really wasn’t so interested in it before, but reading the article History of Black Dance: 20th-Century Black American Dance really made me realize that I had no idea what contemporary or modern dance truly was. I just assumed that interpretive danced sort of fell under that category, but now I realize that isn’t the case whatsoever. I knew that Black culture and the Harlem Renaissance had an impact on a lot of different categories of expression (i.e., jazz, dances adopted across the nation, etc), but I had no idea that modern dance was one of them.

The fact that modern dance was introduced during that time period by ‘people of color’, not to mention women, is truly iconic and makes a profound statement about these people. Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus were unafraid of what people thought, and they went with what they wanted to do even though not many people were receptive to it. The research that they did to choreograph their dances was extensive and thorough, simply because they believed that dance, as a form of expression, should be on par with white dance. Traditional black dance from Haiti and Jamaica and traditional white dance from Europe should have the same level of impact in society. One should not be superior to the other. These women broke the chains that bound them in society to be inferior in both gender and racial equality, and they have a huge line of dancers after them to thank them for doing that.

When I was younger, I did ballet for about five years. I realized that it really wasn’t for me, and that my limbs simply couldn’t be as rigid and perfectly straight as they needed to be in order for me to be good at ballet. I stopped dancing a long time ago, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t still enjoy watching it. In fact, I feel like I would be better at modern dance than I ever was at ballet simply because of the fluidity of the dance. Contemporary style doesn’t have to mean ‘interpretive dance’, the kind that everyone has made fun of. Contemporary dance can portray a world of emotion in just a few simple movements, and I feel like anybody can use modern dance to be expressive. Watching the video of the dancers really excited me for this show, and I can’t wait to see how they are able to tie meaning in with their dances. 

Black American dance starting from the Harlem Renaissance has come a long way and has been the start of many popular dances in America and other parts of the world. Some popular and iconic dances are; the jitterbug, Charleston, Lindyhop, and many others. The article, History of Black Dance: 20th-Century Black American Dance ,  gives a lot of information about the history of Black American dance and lists many men and women who were pioneers and leaders for the creation of new dances and who were responsible for spreading it throughout the country. Many of them took from and researched other countries and ethnicities and brought it back to America by integrating it with dances thus creating something new, fun, and expressive. These people were able to take from their cultures and introduce it to the rest of the world through art and expression that everyone can be a part of.

Going through the times, Black American dance has evolved and became part of others kind of dances such as modern dance. Like the rest, Black Modern dance does not disappoint either.

I personally am not a fan of modern dance. It is too abstract and from the dance performances I’ve seen, they are always slow, haunting, and the dancers are too expressive and loose with their bodies and limbs. I will also admit that some modern dance performances can be called weird to me because I simply can’t understand or comprehend it.  However, when I watched Kyle Abraham’s “The Watershed” and “When the Wolves Came In”, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.  The music accompanied the dancers was a jazz song with a woman singing live in the back of the stage. The dancers were actually wearing clothing that matched the theme or message trying to be conveyed which makes it a lot easier to interpret instead of if the dancers wore tight leotards. It was more lively and it wasn’t as abstract and open as others are because of the use of music, imagery (projected on the screen), and the dancers themselves.

However, although I do know what the theme or general idea of the piece is about, it is still difficult for me to interpret or analyze the little things or details of the dance. Modern dance is very open to interpretation for many specific dance moves or the positioning of the dancers or just the interaction of certain specific dances can mean different things. It is a lot to think about. Even after I read the interview with Kyle Abraham and he explained somewhat about the two performances, I understood only a little more than I did before but not everything.

I will, though, enjoy watching the dance performance very much when I see the actually thing. Maybe, when I watch the whole and full performance, I can interpret or analyze some more.