Constance Valis Hill
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390827
- eISBN:
- 9780199863563
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390827.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Dance
This is the first comprehensive, fully documented, intercultural history of tap dance, a uniquely American art form, that explores all aspects of the intricate musical and social exchange that ...
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This is the first comprehensive, fully documented, intercultural history of tap dance, a uniquely American art form, that explores all aspects of the intricate musical and social exchange that evolved from Afro-Irish percussive step dances like the jig, gioube, buck-and-wing, and juba to the work of contemporary tap luminaries. Tap dance evolved from the oral traditions and expressive cultures of the West Africans and the Irish that converged and collided in America, and was perpetuated by such key features as the tap challenge—any competition or showdown in which dancers compete against each other before an audience of spectators or judges. The book begins with an account of a buck dance challenge between Bill (“Bojangles”) Robinson and Harry Swinton at Brooklyn’s Bijou Theatre, in 1900, and proceeds decade by decade through the twentieth century. Vividly described are tap’s musical styles and steps—from buck-and-wing and ragtime stepping at the turn of the century; jazz tapping to the rhythms of hot jazz, swing, and bebop in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s; to hip-hop-inflected hitting and hoofing in heels (high and low) from the 1990s up to today. Tap dancing has long been considered “a man’s game,” and this book is the first history to highlight such outstanding female artists as Ada Overton Walker, Kitty O’Neill, and Alice Whitman, at the turn of the twentieth century, as well as the pioneering women composers of the tap renaissance, in the 1970s and 1980s, and the hard-hitting rhythm-tapping women of the millennium.Less
This is the first comprehensive, fully documented, intercultural history of tap dance, a uniquely American art form, that explores all aspects of the intricate musical and social exchange that evolved from Afro-Irish percussive step dances like the jig, gioube, buck-and-wing, and juba to the work of contemporary tap luminaries. Tap dance evolved from the oral traditions and expressive cultures of the West Africans and the Irish that converged and collided in America, and was perpetuated by such key features as the tap challenge—any competition or showdown in which dancers compete against each other before an audience of spectators or judges. The book begins with an account of a buck dance challenge between Bill (“Bojangles”) Robinson and Harry Swinton at Brooklyn’s Bijou Theatre, in 1900, and proceeds decade by decade through the twentieth century. Vividly described are tap’s musical styles and steps—from buck-and-wing and ragtime stepping at the turn of the century; jazz tapping to the rhythms of hot jazz, swing, and bebop in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s; to hip-hop-inflected hitting and hoofing in heels (high and low) from the 1990s up to today. Tap dancing has long been considered “a man’s game,” and this book is the first history to highlight such outstanding female artists as Ada Overton Walker, Kitty O’Neill, and Alice Whitman, at the turn of the twentieth century, as well as the pioneering women composers of the tap renaissance, in the 1970s and 1980s, and the hard-hitting rhythm-tapping women of the millennium.
Xiomarita Pérez and Maria Lara Soto (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813034676
- eISBN:
- 9780813046303
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034676.003.0013
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Xiomarita Pérez discusses the Dominican son, its dance, how to teach it, and the characteristics of dance and personal style that mark a true Dominican sonero. The Dominican son descends from the ...
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Xiomarita Pérez discusses the Dominican son, its dance, how to teach it, and the characteristics of dance and personal style that mark a true Dominican sonero. The Dominican son descends from the Cuban son, but the dance and music have developed locally. To the son's irresistible rhythms and lilting guitar, the soneros, urban people who have developed a subculture that stresses elegance, dance with grace and great style, hips moving to the lilt, men taking breaks for elaborate footwork or inventive body shifts, women and men partnering as one. Pérez, who teaches son (among other dances) in Santo Domingo, emphasizes rhythm and the elegance of son and the sonero.Less
Xiomarita Pérez discusses the Dominican son, its dance, how to teach it, and the characteristics of dance and personal style that mark a true Dominican sonero. The Dominican son descends from the Cuban son, but the dance and music have developed locally. To the son's irresistible rhythms and lilting guitar, the soneros, urban people who have developed a subculture that stresses elegance, dance with grace and great style, hips moving to the lilt, men taking breaks for elaborate footwork or inventive body shifts, women and men partnering as one. Pérez, who teaches son (among other dances) in Santo Domingo, emphasizes rhythm and the elegance of son and the sonero.
Constance Valis Hill
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390827
- eISBN:
- 9780199863563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390827.003.0010
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Dance
This chapter begins with a tap challenge between Gregory Hines and veteran hoofers Sammy Davis Jr., Jimmy Slyde, Harold Nicholas, Arthur Duncan, and Sandman Sims in the 1989 film Tap. The movie ...
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This chapter begins with a tap challenge between Gregory Hines and veteran hoofers Sammy Davis Jr., Jimmy Slyde, Harold Nicholas, Arthur Duncan, and Sandman Sims in the 1989 film Tap. The movie culminated the decade in which tap dance came back with a rhythm-cutting vengeance—on Broadway, in the movies, on television, and on festival and concert stages. If tap had “died” in the 1950s and 1960s, then the sheer number of 1980s tap-dancing musicals, and musicals with tap-dancing stars, on and off Broadway, was staggering proof of tap’s resurrection. The 1980s saw the meteoric rise of Gregory Hines as rhythm tap’s most venerable star who would carry the tradition forward as an artist, producer, promoter, and ambassador of this American vernacular dance form. Newly emerging women in tap organized festivals, founded and directed companies, choreographed new tap works, codified techniques, and brought more women onto the concert stage.Less
This chapter begins with a tap challenge between Gregory Hines and veteran hoofers Sammy Davis Jr., Jimmy Slyde, Harold Nicholas, Arthur Duncan, and Sandman Sims in the 1989 film Tap. The movie culminated the decade in which tap dance came back with a rhythm-cutting vengeance—on Broadway, in the movies, on television, and on festival and concert stages. If tap had “died” in the 1950s and 1960s, then the sheer number of 1980s tap-dancing musicals, and musicals with tap-dancing stars, on and off Broadway, was staggering proof of tap’s resurrection. The 1980s saw the meteoric rise of Gregory Hines as rhythm tap’s most venerable star who would carry the tradition forward as an artist, producer, promoter, and ambassador of this American vernacular dance form. Newly emerging women in tap organized festivals, founded and directed companies, choreographed new tap works, codified techniques, and brought more women onto the concert stage.
Constance Valis Hill
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390827
- eISBN:
- 9780199863563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390827.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Dance
This chapter begins with the tap challenge between the Peg Leg Bates and Hal LeRoy on The Ed Sullivan Show and ends with a challenge between dancers Bob Fosse and Tommy Raal in My Sister Eileen. The ...
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This chapter begins with the tap challenge between the Peg Leg Bates and Hal LeRoy on The Ed Sullivan Show and ends with a challenge between dancers Bob Fosse and Tommy Raal in My Sister Eileen. The 1950s, beginning with the death of Bill Robinson, has been commonly referred to as the decade of tap dance’s decline, when tap dance waned in popularity as the number of live performances diminished. Tap dancers found themselves out of jobs; and venues for tap performances shifted from the stage to television. As the steady rhythms of 1940s swing gave way to the dissonant harmonics and frenzied rhythmic shifts of bebop, big bands downsized into jazz combos, which further diminished work for tap dancers. As the decade laid to rest the half-century jigging tradition represented by Robinson, tap dance was regenerated and transfigured by bebop, thus to be resurrected into a modern jazz expression.Less
This chapter begins with the tap challenge between the Peg Leg Bates and Hal LeRoy on The Ed Sullivan Show and ends with a challenge between dancers Bob Fosse and Tommy Raal in My Sister Eileen. The 1950s, beginning with the death of Bill Robinson, has been commonly referred to as the decade of tap dance’s decline, when tap dance waned in popularity as the number of live performances diminished. Tap dancers found themselves out of jobs; and venues for tap performances shifted from the stage to television. As the steady rhythms of 1940s swing gave way to the dissonant harmonics and frenzied rhythmic shifts of bebop, big bands downsized into jazz combos, which further diminished work for tap dancers. As the decade laid to rest the half-century jigging tradition represented by Robinson, tap dance was regenerated and transfigured by bebop, thus to be resurrected into a modern jazz expression.
Constance Valis Hill
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390827
- eISBN:
- 9780199863563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390827.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Dance
This chapter begins with the tap challenge between Earl “Groundhog” Basie and Chuck Green at the Village Gate, in which drummer Max Roach ousted Jo Jones from the drums as the tap dancers copied and ...
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This chapter begins with the tap challenge between Earl “Groundhog” Basie and Chuck Green at the Village Gate, in which drummer Max Roach ousted Jo Jones from the drums as the tap dancers copied and cracked on each other. This contentious battle mirrored the social and political fire of the 1960s, when black rhythm tap takes on the inflections of bebop, with more improvisational exchanges between solo dancer and musicians. The irregular heel beats of Bunny Briggs’s taps were punctuated by silences and broken into a barrage of military-type flam strokes before settling into heel-and-toe beats; Lon Chaney’s bop-inflected paddle-and-roll tapping proved him to be a master of improvisation and momentum by varying and accumulating rhythmic phrases and breaks; and the rhythm-and-blues inflections of Cholly Atkins’s “vocal choreography” carried jazz rhythms from the feet into the body. All these artists demonstrated the inextricable tie between tap dancing and jazz music.Less
This chapter begins with the tap challenge between Earl “Groundhog” Basie and Chuck Green at the Village Gate, in which drummer Max Roach ousted Jo Jones from the drums as the tap dancers copied and cracked on each other. This contentious battle mirrored the social and political fire of the 1960s, when black rhythm tap takes on the inflections of bebop, with more improvisational exchanges between solo dancer and musicians. The irregular heel beats of Bunny Briggs’s taps were punctuated by silences and broken into a barrage of military-type flam strokes before settling into heel-and-toe beats; Lon Chaney’s bop-inflected paddle-and-roll tapping proved him to be a master of improvisation and momentum by varying and accumulating rhythmic phrases and breaks; and the rhythm-and-blues inflections of Cholly Atkins’s “vocal choreography” carried jazz rhythms from the feet into the body. All these artists demonstrated the inextricable tie between tap dancing and jazz music.
Bob Boross
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049298
- eISBN:
- 9780813050119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049298.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Since jazz dance is a shared creation of countless individual contributions, there can be no definitive answer to the question “what is jazz dance?” Yes, the initial manifestation of jazz dance was a ...
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Since jazz dance is a shared creation of countless individual contributions, there can be no definitive answer to the question “what is jazz dance?” Yes, the initial manifestation of jazz dance was a recognizable product of a particular time and circumstance, but as time passed and circumstances changed, so did jazz dance change as it absorbed new realities. Boross’s take on the puzzle of how to define jazz dance is that the family of jazz dance exceeds the first original creation, and has taken shape in various configurations, however diluted, of that original jazz purity. To limit jazz dance as one particular thing would preclude the infinite possibilities of what jazz dance can become. Boross discusses the defining characteristics of jazz dance in terms of movement, rhythm, and expression as means to evaluate the varying degrees of jazz dance characteristics versus non-jazz dance characteristics visible in jazz dance choreography.Less
Since jazz dance is a shared creation of countless individual contributions, there can be no definitive answer to the question “what is jazz dance?” Yes, the initial manifestation of jazz dance was a recognizable product of a particular time and circumstance, but as time passed and circumstances changed, so did jazz dance change as it absorbed new realities. Boross’s take on the puzzle of how to define jazz dance is that the family of jazz dance exceeds the first original creation, and has taken shape in various configurations, however diluted, of that original jazz purity. To limit jazz dance as one particular thing would preclude the infinite possibilities of what jazz dance can become. Boross discusses the defining characteristics of jazz dance in terms of movement, rhythm, and expression as means to evaluate the varying degrees of jazz dance characteristics versus non-jazz dance characteristics visible in jazz dance choreography.
Mark Franko
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199794010
- eISBN:
- 9780190241186
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794010.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Dance, History, Western
This book presents a historical and theoretical examination of French baroque court ballet from approximately 1573 until 1670. Spanning the late Renaissance and the Baroque, this book brings ...
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This book presents a historical and theoretical examination of French baroque court ballet from approximately 1573 until 1670. Spanning the late Renaissance and the Baroque, this book brings aesthetic and ideological criteria to bear on court ballet libretti, period accounts, contemporaneous performance theory, and related commentary on dance and movement in literature. It studies the formal choreographic apparatus that characterizes late Valois and early Bourbon ballet spectacle and how its changing aesthetic ultimately reflected the political situation of the nobles who devised and performed court ballets. Court ballet included but was not solely limited to dancing: speaking and singing were also integral components of early ballets. The book gives particular attention to the technologies of theatrical choreography designed to accentuate, subsume, or countervene an omnipresent text. Thus, the relationship of dance to text, in both its historical and theoretical dimension, forms the main axis of the book’s inquiry.Less
This book presents a historical and theoretical examination of French baroque court ballet from approximately 1573 until 1670. Spanning the late Renaissance and the Baroque, this book brings aesthetic and ideological criteria to bear on court ballet libretti, period accounts, contemporaneous performance theory, and related commentary on dance and movement in literature. It studies the formal choreographic apparatus that characterizes late Valois and early Bourbon ballet spectacle and how its changing aesthetic ultimately reflected the political situation of the nobles who devised and performed court ballets. Court ballet included but was not solely limited to dancing: speaking and singing were also integral components of early ballets. The book gives particular attention to the technologies of theatrical choreography designed to accentuate, subsume, or countervene an omnipresent text. Thus, the relationship of dance to text, in both its historical and theoretical dimension, forms the main axis of the book’s inquiry.
Billy Siegenfeld
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049298
- eISBN:
- 9780813050119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049298.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
In the current generation of jazz dance artists, swing does not appear to figure at all as a necessary ingredient of creative practice. Swing music embodies two different rhythms, “ground rhythm” and ...
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In the current generation of jazz dance artists, swing does not appear to figure at all as a necessary ingredient of creative practice. Swing music embodies two different rhythms, “ground rhythm” and “jump rhythm,” each with their own personality. Swing emerges from balancing expression in these contrasting states, allowing offbeat accentuations that are at the heart of the jazz experience to pop off the ground with stunning unpredictability. Rock and roll primarily communicates only a single rhythm to the ear. This rhythm tends to repeat without any variation through the duration of a given piece of music. This author feels that if the movements of a dance have been consciously shaped to express the single, two-beat-based rhythm of a piece of music, by definition that dance cannot be considered a “jazz” dance— even if every last movement in the piece replicates in shape a physical gesture borrowed from authentic swing choreography.Less
In the current generation of jazz dance artists, swing does not appear to figure at all as a necessary ingredient of creative practice. Swing music embodies two different rhythms, “ground rhythm” and “jump rhythm,” each with their own personality. Swing emerges from balancing expression in these contrasting states, allowing offbeat accentuations that are at the heart of the jazz experience to pop off the ground with stunning unpredictability. Rock and roll primarily communicates only a single rhythm to the ear. This rhythm tends to repeat without any variation through the duration of a given piece of music. This author feels that if the movements of a dance have been consciously shaped to express the single, two-beat-based rhythm of a piece of music, by definition that dance cannot be considered a “jazz” dance— even if every last movement in the piece replicates in shape a physical gesture borrowed from authentic swing choreography.
Billy Siegenfeld
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049298
- eISBN:
- 9780813050119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049298.003.0032
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Dancing expressed from a core of rhythmically articulated, intensity-infused energy is the hallmark of African-American-originated dance. Forms driven by strongly rhythmic body-dynamics are aesthetic ...
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Dancing expressed from a core of rhythmically articulated, intensity-infused energy is the hallmark of African-American-originated dance. Forms driven by strongly rhythmic body-dynamics are aesthetic cousins, which can be grouped under the umbrella term “American rhythm dancing.” This genre includes people as diverse as the krumper Lil’ C, jazz innovator Jack Cole, and tap dancers Fred Astaire and the Nicholas Brothers. When choreographers and dancers build movement from rhythmically accented dynamics, the energy of the movement more than its spatial organization impacts on the viewer. This is in contrast to space-organized movement that concentrates on re-shaping the body parts to achieve geometrically defined lines, as well as moving bodies through space in straight or curved paths. The author proposes a rebalancing of dance curriculums to focus more on the aesthetics of energy and body dynamics.Less
Dancing expressed from a core of rhythmically articulated, intensity-infused energy is the hallmark of African-American-originated dance. Forms driven by strongly rhythmic body-dynamics are aesthetic cousins, which can be grouped under the umbrella term “American rhythm dancing.” This genre includes people as diverse as the krumper Lil’ C, jazz innovator Jack Cole, and tap dancers Fred Astaire and the Nicholas Brothers. When choreographers and dancers build movement from rhythmically accented dynamics, the energy of the movement more than its spatial organization impacts on the viewer. This is in contrast to space-organized movement that concentrates on re-shaping the body parts to achieve geometrically defined lines, as well as moving bodies through space in straight or curved paths. The author proposes a rebalancing of dance curriculums to focus more on the aesthetics of energy and body dynamics.
Ben Macpherson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199997152
- eISBN:
- 9780199348572
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199997152.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, Dance
This chapter considers the ways in which physical and dramaturgical sequences or textures juxtapose and discourse with each other in the performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats (1981). Examining ...
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This chapter considers the ways in which physical and dramaturgical sequences or textures juxtapose and discourse with each other in the performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats (1981). Examining notions of co-creation between audience and performers, the chapter draws on neurobiological research into embodiment and reception, developing a series of schematic charts that demonstrate the “dynamic shape” of Cats: the gestural shapes of song and dance which combine and collide physically or vocally, to provide a sense of narrative in a musical notorious for its jamboree of character studies and apparent lack of overarching trajectory. Analyzing schematics that chart the use of space, ensemble, voice and movement in this musical—through a focus on embodied reception—the chapter finds that the secret of Cats is its physical demonstration of “micro-narratives” implicit in its songs and dances.Less
This chapter considers the ways in which physical and dramaturgical sequences or textures juxtapose and discourse with each other in the performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats (1981). Examining notions of co-creation between audience and performers, the chapter draws on neurobiological research into embodiment and reception, developing a series of schematic charts that demonstrate the “dynamic shape” of Cats: the gestural shapes of song and dance which combine and collide physically or vocally, to provide a sense of narrative in a musical notorious for its jamboree of character studies and apparent lack of overarching trajectory. Analyzing schematics that chart the use of space, ensemble, voice and movement in this musical—through a focus on embodied reception—the chapter finds that the secret of Cats is its physical demonstration of “micro-narratives” implicit in its songs and dances.
