Lindsay Guarino and Wendy Oliver (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049298
- eISBN:
- 9780813050119
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049298.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
This multi-author textbook provides an in-depth look at the rich and varied history of jazz dance, from its African roots in early American society until today. The book is divided into six main ...
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This multi-author textbook provides an in-depth look at the rich and varied history of jazz dance, from its African roots in early American society until today. The book is divided into six main parts, each addressing a different aspect of jazz dance. The opening section explores the nature of jazz dance from the perspective of four different authors, and is capped by descriptions of the many different styles of jazz dance. The second section focuses on jazz dance history, giving an expansive overview beginning with African dance, through the jazz era of the 1920s-40s, the immense diversification of the late 20th century, and up to the present. The third part looks at master teachers and choreographers who shaped the way jazz dance was codified and performed from 1930-1980. The fourth section discusses dance genres which are closely related to jazz dance, including tap dance, musical theater dance, African-American concert dance, hip-hop dance, and dance in pop culture. Education and training is the focus of the fifth part, including an examination of jazz dance in colleges and universities, as well as private dance studios. Lastly, the sixth section looks at current topics in the jazz dance world including race, jazz dance in France, England, and Japan, and jazz dance aesthetics. The sum of these many parts is both a broader and deeper understanding of a uniquely American dance form, with its African roots and multiple permutations that have evolved as it has mixed with other dance forms and styles.Less
This multi-author textbook provides an in-depth look at the rich and varied history of jazz dance, from its African roots in early American society until today. The book is divided into six main parts, each addressing a different aspect of jazz dance. The opening section explores the nature of jazz dance from the perspective of four different authors, and is capped by descriptions of the many different styles of jazz dance. The second section focuses on jazz dance history, giving an expansive overview beginning with African dance, through the jazz era of the 1920s-40s, the immense diversification of the late 20th century, and up to the present. The third part looks at master teachers and choreographers who shaped the way jazz dance was codified and performed from 1930-1980. The fourth section discusses dance genres which are closely related to jazz dance, including tap dance, musical theater dance, African-American concert dance, hip-hop dance, and dance in pop culture. Education and training is the focus of the fifth part, including an examination of jazz dance in colleges and universities, as well as private dance studios. Lastly, the sixth section looks at current topics in the jazz dance world including race, jazz dance in France, England, and Japan, and jazz dance aesthetics. The sum of these many parts is both a broader and deeper understanding of a uniquely American dance form, with its African roots and multiple permutations that have evolved as it has mixed with other dance forms and styles.
Yvonne Daniel
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042959
- eISBN:
- 9780252051814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042959.003.0012
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
In this essay, Yvonne Daniel highlights the necessity of employing appropriate terminology when discussing African dance forms - terminology that distinguishes dance forms based on geographical, ...
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In this essay, Yvonne Daniel highlights the necessity of employing appropriate terminology when discussing African dance forms - terminology that distinguishes dance forms based on geographical, social, and stylistic histories. Daniel provides an analysis of Afro-Cuban dance categories while bridging to similar dance traditions found throughout the Caribbean and Afro-Latin America. Daniel offers a pluralistic typography of African and Diaspora dance forms and allows a more precise legacy representation. She concludes with a set of recommendations for the mentoring of African Dance performers, researchers, and Performing Arts communities.Less
In this essay, Yvonne Daniel highlights the necessity of employing appropriate terminology when discussing African dance forms - terminology that distinguishes dance forms based on geographical, social, and stylistic histories. Daniel provides an analysis of Afro-Cuban dance categories while bridging to similar dance traditions found throughout the Caribbean and Afro-Latin America. Daniel offers a pluralistic typography of African and Diaspora dance forms and allows a more precise legacy representation. She concludes with a set of recommendations for the mentoring of African Dance performers, researchers, and Performing Arts communities.
Ausettua Amor Amenkum
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042959
- eISBN:
- 9780252051814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042959.003.0009
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Halifu Osumare presents a regional history of African dance in the United States, focusing on the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area from the 1960s to the present. Beginning with the first cohort of ...
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Halifu Osumare presents a regional history of African dance in the United States, focusing on the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area from the 1960s to the present. Beginning with the first cohort of local Dunham-trained dance instructors in the 1950s and 1960s to more contemporary instructors hailing directly from the African continent. She analyzes how African and African diasporic dance traditions became important fixtures in the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area, becoming powerful tools in teaching social justice through various community programs and dance companies that extended from Ghana, the Congo, Senegal, and Liberia into that region. Osumare’s research traces the formation of artistic lineages, while offering insights about the local impact of African dance instruction as a narrative history of how the Bay Area became a regional powerhouse in the African dance field.Less
Halifu Osumare presents a regional history of African dance in the United States, focusing on the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area from the 1960s to the present. Beginning with the first cohort of local Dunham-trained dance instructors in the 1950s and 1960s to more contemporary instructors hailing directly from the African continent. She analyzes how African and African diasporic dance traditions became important fixtures in the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area, becoming powerful tools in teaching social justice through various community programs and dance companies that extended from Ghana, the Congo, Senegal, and Liberia into that region. Osumare’s research traces the formation of artistic lineages, while offering insights about the local impact of African dance instruction as a narrative history of how the Bay Area became a regional powerhouse in the African dance field.
Charles “Chuck” Davis and C. Kemal Nance
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042959
- eISBN:
- 9780252051814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042959.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
C. Kemal Nance has captured the legendary perspective of Baba Chuck in a 2016 interview regarding the seminal words Davis spoke, the history he preached of African descendants in the African ...
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C. Kemal Nance has captured the legendary perspective of Baba Chuck in a 2016 interview regarding the seminal words Davis spoke, the history he preached of African descendants in the African diaspora, and Davis’ vision of the state of African heritage traditions in the Americas today. Discussions include the history, business practices, and dancer management style Baba Chuck employed within the Chuck Davis Dance Company; they also reveal Baba Chuck’s pathway from New York to North Carolina, his connections to African dance contemporaries, such as Kariamu Welsh, and his understandings of what the future holds for his dancers and his company. This interview has become even more poignant since Baba Chuck’s recent death. When asked how he would want his legacy to be remembered, Baba Chuck answered simply, “He danced,” but the legacy he left will have him remembered for so much more and for many decades to come.Less
C. Kemal Nance has captured the legendary perspective of Baba Chuck in a 2016 interview regarding the seminal words Davis spoke, the history he preached of African descendants in the African diaspora, and Davis’ vision of the state of African heritage traditions in the Americas today. Discussions include the history, business practices, and dancer management style Baba Chuck employed within the Chuck Davis Dance Company; they also reveal Baba Chuck’s pathway from New York to North Carolina, his connections to African dance contemporaries, such as Kariamu Welsh, and his understandings of what the future holds for his dancers and his company. This interview has become even more poignant since Baba Chuck’s recent death. When asked how he would want his legacy to be remembered, Baba Chuck answered simply, “He danced,” but the legacy he left will have him remembered for so much more and for many decades to come.
Sue Miller
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496832153
- eISBN:
- 9781496832207
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496832153.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter provides a summary of the most important venues in New York where musicians have performed danzón, rhumba/son, mambo, chachachá, and pachanga. Aside the Palladium, other venues operating ...
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This chapter provides a summary of the most important venues in New York where musicians have performed danzón, rhumba/son, mambo, chachachá, and pachanga. Aside the Palladium, other venues operating in the 1950s and ‘60s are examined in terms of the types of Latin music played in them, documenting the experiences of performers of Cuban dance music in The Bronx, Spanish Harlem, downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Catskills resort venues. The usual narrative of the Palladium as ‘home of the mambo’ is not negated but the narrative is expanded so that the relationships between the various performance scenes can be evaluated more fully. In the latter part of this chapter the history of the dance hall from 1947 to 1966 is examined in terms of the mambo big bands, conjuntos, and charanga bands that performed there, drawing on the perspectives of musicians who experienced live performances there.Less
This chapter provides a summary of the most important venues in New York where musicians have performed danzón, rhumba/son, mambo, chachachá, and pachanga. Aside the Palladium, other venues operating in the 1950s and ‘60s are examined in terms of the types of Latin music played in them, documenting the experiences of performers of Cuban dance music in The Bronx, Spanish Harlem, downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Catskills resort venues. The usual narrative of the Palladium as ‘home of the mambo’ is not negated but the narrative is expanded so that the relationships between the various performance scenes can be evaluated more fully. In the latter part of this chapter the history of the dance hall from 1947 to 1966 is examined in terms of the mambo big bands, conjuntos, and charanga bands that performed there, drawing on the perspectives of musicians who experienced live performances there.
