African Dance

Dance Typologies

  • Sacred dance

    • Encompasses all movement

    • High importance to a culture/cultural group

  • Sacred religious dances

    • Movement that expresses or enhances spiritual experiences

  • Percussive dance

    • Highly rhythmic and musical

    • Precise execution of foot-based patterns

    • Uses the body to create a percussive sound

  • Social dance

    • Sociability and socializing are primary focuses of dancing

  • All of the above are dances in the US pre-Civil War

How was African American dance created?

  • African Americans

    • Descendants of enslaved Africans transported to the US in the slave trade

    • Descendents of indentured servants

      • Working to pay off debt, no salary

    • Free/freed men

      • Born free or received their freedom through payment

      • Completed servitude or granted from owner

Cultural Retention Factors

  • Factors that enable a person or people to keep cultural aspects that help define who or what they are

    • 1. The # of enslaved Africans in disembarkation location

    • 2. Catholic vs. Protestant practices of slavery

    • 3. Slave master involvement

    • 4. Size of plantations

    • 5. Proximity of plantations

    • 6. Banning of the drum

  • Enslaved Africans in the new world

    • 1501-1505 is when Santo Domingo was the capital of the DR

    • 1619

      • The White Lion brought 20-30 enslaved Africans landed at Point Comfort in VA

    • 1807

      • Slave Trade Act prohibited the importation of slaves to the US

    • 1863

      • Emancipation Proclamation

      • Freed slaves in the rebellious/Confederate states

    • The 13th Amendment officially abolished slavery

  • What the numbers show

    • 44.8% of enslaved Africans were taken to the Caribbean Islands

    • 49.9% were taken to South America, mostly Brazil

    • 4.2% were taken to the USA

  • 2. Catholic vs. Protestant practices of slavery

    • Keeping families/ethnic groups together

    • Slaves had a right to marry

    • Had a right to seek relief from a cruel master

    • Insisted slaves had a right to purchase their freedom

    • Protestants believed the opposite and adopted the harsher practices

  • Chattel slavery

    • One person has total ownership of another

  • 3. Slave master involvement

    • Absentee slaveowner

    • Present slaveowner

  • 4. Size of plantations

    • Plantations in the Caribbean were much bigger

      • Held 150+ slaves

      • Provided more opportunity to hide things

    • Half of all slaves in US worked on units with 20 or less slaves

  • 5. Proximity of plantations

    • Allowed for more social interaction/exchanges between various groups

  • 6. Banning of the drums in the US

    • The Stono Rebellion in 1739 banned drums

      • Led by “Jenny”, who used drums to call other slaves to rebel

      • Largest slave rebellion in the 13 colonies

      • Drums were banned afterward

    • Impact of the Stono Rebellion

      • Negro Act of 1740

        • Restricted the assembly, education, and movement of slaves

        • Ceased importation of African slaves for 10+ years

        • Penalties against slave owners for harsh treatment of slaves    

          • This was a large reason for the rebellion

        • Slaveholders couldn’t free slaves w/o legislative approval

        • Outlawed slave dances

        • Banned drums, horns, and other loud instruments

8/31

  • Due to the new laws, Africans lost their sacred identity

    • Who you are as a people

    • Reinforcement of their religious belief

    • Reinforcement of their cultural and social identity

    • Expression of their cultural history

    • Example: People come to Pitt and start drinking and smoking when they were never like that, due to their environment

  • Africans also lost their aesthetic value system

    • Oral tradition

      • Family recipes

    • Oral narration

      • Passing stories down

    • Rhythmic inflection

    • Form and function

      • Movements to dancing served a certain purpose

    • Polycentrism

      • Understanding how to dance to certain music

  • European impressions

    • Percussive dances

    • 4/4 music count

    • European couple dances

    • European ballroom dances

  • Aesthetics of dances on the Caribbean Plantation

    • Concepts of sensual perception

    • Extra-sensory perceptions (“sixth sense”, “vibe”, “energy”)

    • Personal preferences (likes and dislikes)

    • Cultural

  • Basic African dance movements

    • Body isolation

    • Body segmentation

    • Flat feet

    • Bent knees

    • Mimicry

      • Imitating work life (planting, hunting, harvesting)

    • Natural body motions

      • Staying within/near your body

  • Aesthetic commonalities in the Caribbean only

    • Oral tradition

    • Oral narration

      • Art form/cultural artifact that is used to document history and culture

    • Polyrhythm

      • Many movements going on in a dance

    • Repetition

    • Call and response

      • Everybody being engaged in the dancing

      • Musicians interacting w/ dancers and vice versa

        • Dances always have a lead drummer that affects the dance

        • The rhythm of the music dictates the dance

      • Audience interacting w/ dancers and vice versa

    • Polycentrism

      • Understanding how to dance to certain music

    • Rhythmic inflection

      • The usual rhythm in African dances is different than that of the rhythm in American dances

  • Dances done on the Caribbean plantation

    • Calenda

    • Chica

    • Bamboula

    • Juba

      • Considered the greatest dancer at the time

    • Wedding dances

    • Crop-over

    • People of color dances

    • Funeral dances

      • Banda

      • Bele

  • Parading and masquerading

    • John Canoe (Jonkanoo)

      • Mass character that comes out around Christmas time

    • Gombay dancers

      • Mass figures that walk around on stilts

  • Caribbean Danced Religions

    • Religions where dance is a major part of worship

    • Candomble

      • Danced religion in Brazil

      • Used aspects of the Roman Catholicism and indigenous American traditions

      • Publicly acknowledged/accepted

    • Vodoun/Voodoo

      • Danced religion in Haiti

      • “Vodou” means “spirit” or “deity”

      • Not publicly acknowledged/accepted

    • Santeria

      • Danced religion in Spanish speaking countries

      • Devotion to the saints/santos

    • Shouters

  • Dances on the US plantation

    • Mimicry dances

      • Buck and wing

      • Buzzard lope

      • Pigeon wing

      • Jig

      • Cake walk

    • House slave dances

      • Much like mimicry dances

      • Mimicking the owners

    • Percussive dances

      • Tap dancing

      • Using metal to make the sounds (without drums)

      • Hambone

        • Stepping, slapping, patting your body to make the sounds (without drums)

        • Response to the banning of the drums

    • Clogging

      • Much like tap dancing

      • More like Irish jig dancing

    • Ring dances

      • Most spiritual/sacred dance found in the US plantations

    • Special occasion dances

      • Saturday nights

      • Corn shucking

      • Weddings

        • Done in private areas since slaves could not marry

      • Ring shout

        • Worship dance

        • Like what you’d see in black churches today

    • Other instruments used on US plantation

      • Tambourine

      • Fiddle

      • Banjo

      • Pattin juba

    • Congo square

      • Open area in the southern US where Africans were allowed to drum and dance in NOLA

  • Quadroon Balls

    • Miscegenation - Mixing people of different races

    • Mulatto

      • Person of mixed white and black

      • EX: Obama

    • Quadroon

      • ¼ African, ¾ European

      • EX: Zendaya

    • Octoroon

      • 1/8 African, rest European

    • You could be enslaved if you had ANY African descent

  • Promenade Balls

    • White slave masters would pimp out their daughters to be mistresses to other men

  • Six streams of dance in the US

    • 1st stream dance

      • Dancing for one’s own enjoyment

    • 2nd stream dance

      • Dancing for others enjoyment

    • 3rd stream dance

      • Dancing to make their owners money

        • Dancing on the auction block

        • Dancing on the slave ships

        • Dancing competitions

    • Sacred religious dances

      • Rare in the US because of lack of cultural history

    • Social dances

      • Focusing on socializing w/ the dances

    • Rebellion dances

      • Dancing in opposition to rules/practices

  • Things to know for test

    • Specific dances from Caribbean, North America, Dances of the Levee

    • Quadroon Balls

    • Discuss African culture in Caribbean vs. US

    • Define and explain African aesthetics in Caribbean vs. US

    • Characteristics of movements

    • Discuss + define various African aesthetics

    • Trans-Atlantic slave trade

    • Cultural retention

    • Six streams of dance

    • Dances in US plantations

    • Congo Square (history, relevancy, cultural impact

Minstrel Stage

  • Minstrel era

    • 1830s-1920s

  • European medievel minstrels

    • Singers, musicians, storytellers

    • Performed for the wealthy, the rich, the nobles

    • Beginning of the idea of minstrels being entertainers

  • Blackface Minstrel

    • Always has been about white people mocking black people

    • People used black chalk and highlighted red lips

      • Created stereotypes about black people that people thought were funny

    • Black people did this too

      • It made the white people laugh, feel comfortable

      • It was one of the only opportunities for black people to make money

    • People were illiterate, so they learned off stereotypes from each other

  • Impactful Minstrel shows/dances

    • Stetson’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin/“Tom Shows”

      • Shows the Uncle Tom character supporting slavery

    • Stephen Foster wrote many popular minstrel shows

    • Original Georgia Minstrels

    • Haverly’s Colored Minstrels

    • Sprague’s Georgia Minstrels

    • W.S Cleveland’s Colored Minstrels

  • Minstrel show parts

    • Part one

      • Chorus

      • Jokes

      • Ballads

      • Comic songs

      • Instrumental numbers

    • Part 2: The Olio

      • Series of individual acts

      • Concluded with a hoe down or walk around

    • Part 3

      • Farce, burlesque, comic opera



    • Stereotypes of black people

      • Dim-witted

      • Lazy

      • Bufoonish

      • Superstitious

      • Happy-go lucky

      • Exaggerated speaking and singing forms

  • Minstrel shows stereotypes

    • Jim crow was created by TD Rice

      • Was supposed to make a mockery of a specific slave

      • Created a stereotype of black people

      • The slave was happy-go lucky

    • Zip Coon/Dandy Jim

      • Slow-talking, improper grammar, using big words out of context

      • Mischevious

      • Overdressed

      • Mockery of free black people up north

    • Mammy

      • Big, fat woman used for comic relief

      • Considered the maid/housekeeper

      • Giggly, laughing, overexpressive

      • Aunt Jemima, Mrs. Butterworth

    • Pickaninny

      • Racial slur for African American children

      • Messed up hair

    • Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

      • Abolitionist book: Movement to end slavery and help slaves escape

      • The term “Uncle Tom” is still used today

        • A black person who is good to white people at the expense of black people

        • Like Uncle Ruckus from Boondocks

  • Jim Crow vs. Master Juba

    • Master Juba was considered the world’s greatest dancer

      • Contradicted Jim Crow stereotypes with his ability to dance very well and speak well

  • Dance typologies

    • Concert stage dances

      • Trained, technique-centered dances performed for an audience

        • You have to learn these

    • Modern dance has more freedom and expression

      • As opposed to strict, restricted movements of ballet

    • Black dance

      • Uses histories, experiences, realities of African Americans

      • Goal is to make a social, political, and/or cultural statement

      • It is now more than just a social dance

  • Important people

    • Josephine Baker

      • Performed in Europe and was treated well there

      • Became a star because of her special “gimmicks”

        • Banana dance

        • Mostly famous for her jovial sex appeal

    • Katherine Dunham

      • First to use choreography to tell a story

      • Major pioneer for Black concert dance

      • Most of the dancers following from Dunham Technique

    • Alvin Ailey

      • Most famous dance is Revelations

    • Edna Guy

      • First black dancer to perform with a white dance company

    • Asadata Dafora

      • First to specialize in African Dance on a concert stage

        • Based dances on West African myths

    • Pearl Primus

      • Pioneered the idea of social commentary

    • Donald Mckayle

      • Also pioneered social commentary

      • Mourner’s Bench was his most famous piece

    • Eleo Pomare

      • Politically charged productions depicting black culture

      • Junkie was his most famous piece

    • Arthur Mitchell

      • First major African American ballet dance company

    • Garth Fagan

      • Did choreography for Lion King

    • Ronald K. Brown

      • Combines all kinds of dance into his choreography

  • Post-Civil War Dance typologies

    • Social dance

    • Vernacular dance

      • Evolved into what is now commercial dance

    • Percussive dance

      • Tap dance

      • Hoofing

        • Emphasizing stomps w/ rhythmic percussion

      • Jazz tap

        • Performed to jazz

        • Fast and light footwork as opposed to hoofing

      • Soft shoe

        • Tap dance without the metal taps on the shoes

      • Broadway tap

        • More arm movements

        • More artistic body movements

        • Performed in musical theatre

      • Stepping    

        • Dancer’s entire body = a percussion instrument

        • Footsteps, spoken words, and claps

  • Juke joints

    • Dancing, drinking, gambling

    • Was ran by black southeastern Americans

    • Byproduct of the black church

    • Place for people who wouldn’t attend church

    • New music + dances + trends were created and spread

  • Harlem Renaissance

    • Cultural, social, artistic, and political expansion in black community

    • Early 20th century

  • Dance halls

    • Gathering + meeting places for the black community

    • Rent parties

    • Political gatherings

    • Community meetings

    • Social and civic engagements

    • These gatherings generated revenue for black community

  • Cotton Club in Harlem

    • Black performers for white audiences

  • Savoy Ballroom

    • Black people could attend in the audience

      • 85% black, 15% white

      • Non-discrimination

    • Lindy hop

    • Big apple

    • Jitterbug

    • Snake ships

  • Jazz music originates in NOLA

    • Intended to be dance music

  • Significance of night clubs

    • Dance, musical opportunities

    • Exposure of white people to black art

    • Black culture is appropriated now