Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance

This ground-breaking work brings dance into current discussions of the African presence in American culture. Dixon Gottschild argues that the Africanist aesthetic has been "invisibilized" by the pervasive force of racism. The book provides evidence to correct and balance the record, investigating the Africanist presence as a conditioning factor in shaping American performance, onstage and in everyday life. She examines the Africanist presence in American dance forms particularly in George Balanchine's Americanized style of ballet, (post)modern dance, and blackface minstrelsy. Hip hop culture and rap are related to contemporary performance, showing how a disenfranchised culture affects the culture in power.

First sentence: In a modern dance film, "Dance: Four Pioneers," which is screened in college dance department classrooms across the nation, the narrator states that the contributions of Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Hanya HoIm, and Martha Graham are felt in American dance from Broadway to the concert stage.

Year

1996

Language

English

Publisher

Praeger Paperback

Editions

1

Pages

224

ISBN

9780275963736

Data source: Wikidata