Dance Appreciation: African American and Mexican Folkloric Studies
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Donald Mckayle's Life in Dance
ey rn u In Jo Donald f McKayle’s i nite Life in Dance An exhibit in the Muriel Ansley Reynolds Gallery UC Irvine Main Library May - September 1998 Checklist prepared by Laura Clark Brown The UCI Libraries Irvine, California 1998 ey rn u In Jo Donald f i nite McKayle’s Life in Dance Donald McKayle, performer, teacher and choreographer. His dances em- body the deeply-felt passions of a true master. Rooted in the American experience, he has choreographed a body of work imbued with radiant optimism and poignancy. His appreciation of human wit and heroism in the face of pain and loss, and his faith in redemptive powers of love endow his dances with their originality and dramatic power. Donald McKayle has created a repertory of American dance that instructs the heart. -Inscription on Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award orld-renowned choreographer and UCI Professor of Dance Donald McKayle received the prestigious Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival WAward, “established to honor the great choreographers who have dedicated their lives and talent to the creation of our modern dance heritage,” in 1992. The “Sammy” was awarded to McKayle for a lifetime of performing, teaching and creating American modern dance, an “infinite journey” of both creativity and teaching. Infinite Journey is the title of a concert dance piece McKayle created in 1991 to honor the life of a former student; the title also befits McKayle’s own life. McKayle began his career in New York City, initially studying dance with the New Dance Group and later dancing professionally for noted choreographers such as Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Sophie Maslow, and Anna Sokolow. -
Thesis Turned Broadway
The Library of America • Story of the Week From Dance in America: A Reader’s Anthology (Library of America, 2018), pages 258–61. Originally published in California Arts and Architecture, August 1941 and reprinted in Kaiso!: Writings by and about Katherine Dunham (2005). Copyright © 2005 by Katherine Dunham. Used by permission of the Estate of Katherine Dunham. Katherine Dunham (1909–2006) What a life! Katherine Dunham was a formidable dancer, an irre- pressible choreographer, a driven social activist, a groundbreaking ethnologist and anthropologist, a serial autobiographer, an interna- tional star, an inspiration, a scandal (banned in Boston!), and a model for generations of African American performers. It’s surprising that she found time to die, even if it was at the age of ninety- six. She starred as Georgia Brown in George Balanchine’s Broadway musical Cabin in the Sky, the show that Ethel Waters stopped with “Taking a Chance on Love.” (Lena Horne played Georgia in the movie.) She went on a forty- seven-day hunger strike to protest American policies toward Haitian refugees. (Speaking of Haiti, she became a priestess of the Vaudon reli- gion there.) She choreographed a new production of Aïda at the Met, featuring Leontyne Price. For decades, she toured the world with her Katherine Dunham Dance Company, mostly performing revues she created with names like Bal Nègre and Caribbean Rhapsody. (Danc- ers affiliated with Dunham’s company include Eartha Kitt, Janet Col- lins, and Talley Beatty.) She married the artist and scenic designer John Pratt, her collaborator on her shows as well, and they adopted a French baby. -
Leah Glenn Received Her Master of Fine Arts Degree in Dance Choreographic Theory and Production from Southern Methodist Universi
Leah Glenn received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Dance Choreographic Theory and Production from Southern Methodist University as well as her Teacher's Certification in Labanotation from Ohio State University. While at SMU, she received her Pilates training from Colleen Glenn, founder of The PilateSystem and went on to receive her teaching certification from STOTT Pilates/Balance Training Center in Richmond, Virginia. Ms. Glenn received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance and Management from Goucher College. While there, she performed as a soloist for artist-in-residence, Gary Masters, and was a member of the PATH modern dance company. Ms. Glenn has also received extensive training from Jacob's Pillow, the Chautauqua Institute and has worked with the Philadelphia Dance Company where she trained with Milton Meyers and Denise Jefferson. Prior to attending graduate school Ms. Glenn was Artistic Director of Cecil Dance Theatre for ten years where she choreographed numerous original modern dance works and reconstructed several ballets including full-length productions of The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and Coppelia. Ms. Glenn was Assistant Professor and Head of Dance at Hampton University for two years. While at Hampton, she directed the Terpsichorean Dance Company and established the first African American chapter of the National Dance Association's Nu Delta Alpha Honor Society. Her choreography has been presented by the College of William and Mary, Hampton University, the Maryland School of Ballet and Modern Dance and Colonial Williamsburg. Her reconstructions of Pearl Primus’ Bushasche Etude, the Parsons Etude, the Limon Etude, Anna Sokolow's Rooms Etude and Donald McKayle's Rainbow Etude have been presented by William and Mary. -
Welcome Letter 2013 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival
Welcome Letter 2013 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award Lin Hwai-min The ADF wishes to thank the late Samuel H. Scripps, whose generosity made possible the annual $50,000 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award. The Award was established in 1981 as the first of its kind and honors chorographers who have dedicated their lives and talent to the creation of modern dance. The continuation of the award is made possible through the SHS Foundation and its President, Richard E. Feldman. Celebrated choreographer, director, and educator Lin Hwai-min will be presented with the 2013 Award by Joseph V. Melillo in a special ceremony on Saturday, July 27th at 8:00 pm, prior to the Forces of Dance performance at the Durham Performing Arts Center. The program will also include a performance of the solo from Lin Hwai-min’s 1998 work Moon Water, performed by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre dancer Chou Chang-ning. Mr. Lin’s fearless zeal for the art form has established him as one of the most dynamic and innovative choreographers today. His illustrious career as a choreographer has spanned over four decades and has earned him international praise for his impact on Chinese modern dance. He is the founder, choreographer, and artistic director of both Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan (founded in 1973) and Cloud Gate 2 (founded in 1992), and his choreography continues to be presented throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. While his works often draw inspiration from traditional elements of Asian culture and aesthetics, his choreographic brilliance continues to push boundaries and redefine the art form. -
The Miseducation of Hip-Hop Dance: Authenticity, and the Commodification of Cultural Identities
The Miseducation of Hip-Hop dance: Authenticity, and the commodification of cultural identities. E. Moncell Durden., Assistant Professor of Practice University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance Introduction Hip-hop dance has become one of the most popular forms of dance expression in the world. The explosion of hip-hop movement and culture in the 1980s provided unprecedented opportunities to inner-city youth to gain a different access to the “American” dream; some companies saw the value in using this new art form to market their products for commercial and consumer growth. This explosion also aided in an early downfall of hip-hop’s first dance form, breaking. The form would rise again a decade later with a vengeance, bringing older breakers out of retirement and pushing new generations to develop the technical acuity to extraordinary levels of artistic corporeal genius. We will begin with hip-hop’s arduous beginnings. Born and raised on the sidewalks and playgrounds of New York’s asphalt jungle, this youthful energy that became known as hip-hop emerged from aspects of cultural expressions that survived political abandonment, economic struggles, environmental turmoil and gang activity. These living conditions can be attributed to high unemployment, exceptionally organized drug distribution, corrupt police departments, a failed fire department response system, and Robert Moses’ building of the Cross-Bronx Expressway, which caused middle and upper-class residents to migrate North. The South Bronx lost 600,000 jobs and displaced more than 5,000 families. Between 1973 and 1977, and more than 30,000 fires were set in the South Bronx, which gave rise to the phrase “The Bronx is Burning.” This marginalized the black and Latino communities and left the youth feeling unrepresented, and hip-hop gave restless inner-city kids a voice. -
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD— Extensions Of
June 7, 2006 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E1039 IN RECOGNITION OF THE WOMEN’S H. Savage of Idaho, David Williams Simnick of She will forever remain an inspiration to DIVISION OF THE FORT WORTH Illinois, Martin Iran Turman, Jr. of Indiana, many who seek guidance in her wisdom and METROPOLITAN BLACK CHAM- Preston Scott Bates of Kentucky, Seth D. words. She was noted for her no nonsense BER OF COMMERCE Dixon also of Kentucky, Benjamin David approach to the way of life as stated here, Goodman of Maine, Jonathan M. Brookstone ‘‘Don’t be nervous, don’t be tired and above HON. MICHAEL C. BURGESS of Maryland, Zachary Ryan Davis of Massa- all, don’t be bored. Those are the three de- OF TEXAS chusetts, Lauren Brenda Gabriell Hollier of stroyers of freedom’’. Her insight goes far be- IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Michigan, Marvin Anthony Liddell also of yond dance and choreography, but into the Michigan, Christine C. DiLisio of Missouri, real human dilemma. It was stated that, ‘‘she Wednesday, June 7, 2006 Vernon Telford Smith IV of Montana, Victoria was speaking less about dance and more Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to Elizabeth Gilbert of the Model United Nations about an area of equal concern: human recognize the contributions of the Women’s program, Eoghan Emmet Kelley of New rights’’. All those who knew her dignified heart Division of the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Hampshire, Danielle C. Desaulniers of New of compassion could not help but follow her Chamber of Commerce in its support for the Jersey, Juan Carlo Sanchez of New Mexico, lead. -
Into the Eye of the Storm Destruction
tain” overwhelmed by a storm, who eventually dis - covers that “to oppose the storm meant preeminent Into the Eye of the Storm destruction. So he took the opposite course and headed the vessel right into the storm and finally reached the center where it was still and peaceful.” Collins equates this tranquil center with what she calls the “Eye of God”—but it serves just as well as a symbol of her intuitive professional strategy. In an interview in the Seattle Times not included in this book, Collins said of her family, “We didn’t consider ourselves black. … We were well-aware of how black people were treated, but we didn’t bow to that treatment. We didn’t have to overcome inferiority. We had to overcome arrogance.” Desirous of education and stability, committed to excellence in every pursuit, the extended Collins-de Lavallade family paired a remarkable self- confidence with a conviction that dates back at least as far as Anna Julia Cooper’s assertion in 1892 that a woman’s “quiet undisputed dignity…without suing or special patronage” could, by dint of example, elevate the “Negro race.” anet Collins was born in New Orleans in 1917 and brought up in southern California in a Jclose-knit extended family in which, she writes, “We were all encouraged to follow our natural endowments.” Her first ballet teacher was a neighbor, Louise Beverly, who seems to have had some association with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn’s Denishawn modern dance company, indicated in part by the fact that the young Collins was taught a version of the company’s “exotic” East Indian “nautch” dance. -
The Charleston by Dawn Lille
The Charleston by Dawn Lille The 1920s in America were characterized by a During World War I, many southern African sense of abandon, pleasure, and gaiety. The Americans came north to a better life. They era’s chief literary chronicler, F. Scott Fitzgerald, brought their dance and music with them and immortalized the flapper and her dance, the frequented Harlem dance halls and nightclubs. Charleston, as quintessential symbols of the Some of the better dancers were hired for the time. The dance and the “new woman” were acts presented in such places as the Cotton Club solidly entwined for one glorious year, mid- and Small’s Paradise, which were patronized by 1926 to mid-1927. Although other dances white downtown audiences who eventually replaced it, the Charleston, an indigenous brought the dances to white ballrooms. The American jazz dance, has made frequent Savoy Ballroom opened in 1926, coinciding comebacks in one form or another ever since. with the Harlem Renaissance; it was racially Roger Pryor Dodge, an early dance critic, called integrated and had a special area reserved for it the greatest step of all and a major the best dancers. contribution to American dance. But it was Broadway that launched the The Charleston is a dance that was performed Charleston craze. The dance was introduced in by the descendants of African slaves in the 1922 in an all-black stage play called Liza, and American south. Like its sister vernacular form, was present to some degree in many of the jazz, from which it takes its rhythmic influential all-black musicals such as Shuffle propulsion, it is a blend of African and European Along. -
Harlem Intersection – Dancing Around the Double-Bind
HARLEM INTERSECTION – DANCING AROUND THE DOUBLE-BIND A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Judith A. Miller December, 2011 HARLEM INTERSECTION – DANCING AROUND THE DOUBLE-BIND Judith A. Miller Thesis Approved: Accepted: _______________________________ _______________________________ Advisor School Director Robin Prichard Neil Sapienza _______________________________ _______________________________ Faculty Reader Dean of the College Durand L. Pope Chand Midha, PhD _______________________________ _______________________________ Faculty Reader Dean of the Graduate School James Slowiak George R. Newkome, PhD _______________________________ Date ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………. 1 II. JOSEPHINE BAKER – C’EST LA VIE …………………..…….…………………..13 III. KATHERINE DUNHAM – CURATING CULTURE ON THE CONCERT STAGE …………………………………………………………..…………30 IV. PEARL PRIMUS – A PERSONAL CRUSADE …………………………...………53 V. CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………...……….74 BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………………… 85 iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION “Black is Beautiful” became a popular slogan of the 1960s to represent rejection of white values of style and appearance. However, in the earlier decades of the twentieth century black women were daily deflecting slings and arrows thrown at them from all sides. Arising out of this milieu of adversity were Josephine Baker, Katherine Dunham, and Pearl Primus, performing artists whose success depended upon a willingness to innovate, to adapt to changing times, and to recognize and seize opportunities when and where they arose. Baker introduced her performing skills to New York audiences in the 1920s, followed by Dunham in the 1930s, and Primus in the 1940s. Although these decades resulted in an outpouring of cultural and artistic experimentation, for performing artists daring to cross traditional boundaries of gender and race, the obstacles were significant. -
She's the Jazz: an Exploration of Dance and Society in the Age of the Flapper Jillian Terry Western Kentucky University, [email protected]
Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR® Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Honors College at WKU Projects Spring 2019 She's the Jazz: An Exploration of Dance and Society in the Age of the Flapper Jillian Terry Western Kentucky University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_hon_theses Part of the Dance Commons, Performance Studies Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Terry, Jillian, "She's the Jazz: An Exploration of Dance and Society in the Age of the Flapper" (2019). Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects. Paper 811. https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_hon_theses/811 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors College Capstone Experience/ Thesis Projects by an authorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SHE’S THE JAZZ: AN EXPLORATION OF DANCE AND SOCIETY IN THE AGE OF THE FLAPPER A Capstone Project Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Arts with Honors College Graduate Distinction at Western Kentucky University By Jillian C. Terry May 2019 ***** CE/T Committee: Professor Amanda Clark, Chair Assistant Professor Anna Patsfall Copyright by Jillian C. Terry 2019 ii I dedicate this written thesis to my parents, Samuel Robert and Christy Terry, who have supported me wholly with unfailing love in every adventure along the way. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My work would not be -
The Borzoi Book of Modern Dance – New Leaders: Pearl Primus
265 New Leaders: Pearl Primus PEARL PRIMUS Pearl Primus, the youngest of the four-star moderns, flared into a dancer overnight and literally leaped into fame. Since slier first appearance at a Y. M. H. A. Audition Winners' Concert in Tebruary 1943, she has become better known to the lay public than many of her older colleagues. That appearance led to a long engage- lent at the New York night club, Café Society Downtown, then a vo-week concert season with a large company at the Belasco Thea- ter, another Broadway engagement at the Roxy with a larger corn- pany, and repeated performances in the Y. M. H. A. and Students -.Dance Recitals series, always to sold-out houses. In the fall of 1946, .Ruth Page, ballet director of the Chicago Opera Company, invited ler to play the Witch Doctor in The Emperor Jones. Early in 1947, the young woman who had intended to minister to her race as a physician, received the Newspaper Guild's Page One Award for her interpretation of Negro culture through the dance, interrupting .her first transcontinental tour to attend the annual Page One Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria as an honored guest. In the spring of 1948 she received a Rosenwald Fellowship for nine months research in Africa. She had applied for the Fellowship in order to keep her group together to do a ballet on James Weldon Johnson's "Go Down, Death" from God's Trombones. But it was not granted for that, nor at all until the president of the organiza- tion happened to see her perform some of her African dances at a concert in Nashville, Tennessee. -
Cross‐Cultural Perspectives on the Creation of American Dance 1619 – 1950
Moore 1 Cross‐Cultural Perspectives on the Creation of American Dance 1619 – 1950 By Alex Moore Project Advisor: Dyane Harvey Senior Global Studies Thesis with Honors Distinction December 2010 [We] need to understand that African slaves, through largely self‐generative activity, molded their new environment at least as much as they were molded by it. …African Americans are descendants of a people who were second to none in laying the foundations of the economic and cultural life of the nation. …Therefore, …honest American history is inextricably tied to African American history, and…neither can be complete without a full consideration of the other. ‐‐Sterling Stuckey Moore 2 Index 1) Finding the Familiar and Expressions of Resistance in Plantation Dances ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 6 a) The Ring Shout b) The Cake Walk 2) Experimentation and Responding to Hostility in Early Partner Dances ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 14 a) Hugging Dances b) Slave Balls and Race Improvement c) The Blues and the Role of the Jook 3) Crossing the Racial Divide to Find Uniquely American Forms in Swing Dances ‐‐‐‐‐‐ 22 a) The Charleston b) The Lindy Hop Topics for Further Study ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 30 Acknowledgements ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 31 Works Cited ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 32 Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D Moore 3 Cross‐Cultural Perspectives on the Creation of American Dance When people leave the society into which they were born (whether by choice or by force), they bring as much of their culture as they are able with them. Culture serves as an extension of identity. Dance is one of the cultural elements easiest to bring along; it is one of the most mobile elements of culture, tucked away in the muscle memory of our bodies.