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This chapter examines the foundation of Diaspora dance and its relationship to African dance and music. It first considers the importance of dance in the African Diaspora and its relation to Caribbean dance before discussing the emergence of several types of African movement styles that echo across the Diaspora today, along with the introduction of African-derived dance practices to the mainstream European, Asian, and American dance worlds. It then takes a look at some of the performers who have brought Caribbean dance into global view and goes on to analyze particular ways of moving and preferences for certain dance formations. It also reviews some important assumptions that accompany Diaspora dance and its performance and concludes with an assessment of the consequences of Diaspora performance, noting how the efforts of Diaspora performers reinforce dance practices across the Diaspora as resilient and joyful body communication.

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.

This chapter examines Diaspora dance culture from a dance studies perspective. It begins by tracing the history of dance anthropology and Diaspora dance as a field of study, with a particular focus on some key dance scholars such as Franz Boas, E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Margaret Mead, Gertrude Kurath, Katherine Dunham, and Pearl Primus. It then reviews the pioneers and pioneering literature of dance anthropology covering Caribbean, Spanish Caribbean, French/Kreyol Caribbean, English/Creole Caribbean, and Dutch Caribbean dance studies as well as dance studies of Afro-Latin territories. It also provides a short background on African and Diaspora U.S. dance studies and concludes by highlighting how visual analysis of dance formations permits a visceral understanding of Diaspora dance.

This book concludes by discussing the transcendence, resilience, and citizenship that have come to define Diaspora dance. It first explains the transcendent tendencies of Diaspora dance, emphasizing how its several genres have spread through migration, transnational connections, and communication technologies to Caribbean niches in other parts of the world. It then considers the resilience of both Diaspora dance and Diaspora dancers in response to change, able to recover spirit and energy in a quick but cool fashion as they deal with a variety of challenges. It also examines how citizenzhip is invoked in the social meaning of Diaspora dance amidst recreational or theatrical display, noting how historical drum/dances, quadrilles, and contredanses have signaled not only entertainment and diversion but also agency. Finally, the author reflects on her experiences and field research in Spanish, French/Kreyol, English/Creole, Dutch, former Danish and Portuguese Circum-Caribbean dances, as well as the contributions of Katherine Dunham in the field of Diaspora dance.

Amaniyea Payne, dancer/choreographer and Artistic Director of Muntu Dance Theatre, offers her reflections on Muntu’s more than four decades in Chicago, Illinois. There, in mid-west U.S.A., Muntu shines a bright and powerful light on African dance, due in major part to its artistic and educational vision, which has been influenced by Payne’s artistic research and global dance connections. Her research and artistic experiences display the seminal connections among Diaspora dance artists, highlighting their similar concerns regarding education of African, diasporic, and non-African peoples. Payne and Muntu exemplify the characteristic duality of professional African-based dance companies in the U.S.: on the one hand, she and the company develop and present fascinating, contemporary choreographies using traditional African vocabularies and on the other hand, they are enmeshed in educational projects and neighborhood and community development through dance.