Black Women Dancers, Jazz Culture, and “Show Biz”: Recentering Afro-Culture and Reclaiming Dancing Black Bodies in Montréal, 1920s–1950s

The documentary Show Girls, directed by Meilan Lam, makes an unprecedented contribution to the history of jazz and Black women jazz dancers in Montréal, Quebec, and to the conversation of jazz in Canada. Show Girls offers a glimpse into the lives of three Black women dancers of the 1920s–1950s. This essay asks what the lives of Black women dancers were like and how they navigated their career paths in terms of social and economic opportunities and barriers. I seek to better understand three points: (1) the gap in the study of jazz that generally excludes and/or separates dance and singing from the music; (2) the use of dance as a way to commercialize, sell, and give visual and conceptual meaning to jazz; (3) the importance of the Black body and the role of what I would define as “Afro- culture” in producing the ingenious and creative genre of jazz. My study suggests there is a dominant narrative of jazz, at least in academic literature, that celebrates one dimension of jazz as it was advertised in show business, and that bringing in additional components of jazz provides a counternarrative, but also a restorative, whole and more authentic story of jazz and its origins. More specifically, by re- exploring jazz as a whole culture that relies on music, song, and dance, this essay explores three major ideas. First, Black women dancers played a significant role in the success of jazz shows. Second, they articulated stories of self, freedom, and the identity of the New Negro through jazz culture and dance. Third, Black women’s bodies and art were later crystallized into images that further served to sell jazz as a product of show business.

Female Surrogate Labor and White Corporeal Debt in Singin’ in the Rain

This essay revisits the question of credit and debt in the celebrated 1952 film musical Singin’ in the Rain (dir. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, US) to show how white women's dancing bodies participate in the “talent relocations” that the movie both thematizes and suppresses. Specifically, it focuses on the relationship between Debbie Reynolds, who was a novice dancer when she was cast in the film, and the two other white women dancers who helped shape Reynolds's filmic body: assistant choreographer Carol Haney and dance-in Jeanne Coyne. Combining feminist and critical race perspectives with production studies, film studies, and dance and performance studies, the essay unites often disconnected gendered and racial analyses of the film by emphasizing the gendered forms of labor and the multiracial genealogies through which dance is reproduced. It also shows how the guise of white credibility enabled Reynolds to conceal her intercorporeal and multiracial debts. Finally, the essay argues that the presence of dancers of color in the film, most notably Rita Moreno, haunts the chains of white corporeal debt that bind Reynolds to Haney and Coyne.

Nachni: The Saga of Art Unappreciated

The Nachni s of Purulia are a group of women dancers who dance to the characteristic Jhumur of rural Bengal. The dance form of the Nachni is without a doubt part of the cultural heritage of Bengal—and in a broader sense, of India. Yet, a closer look at the community would show up a distinctive lack of acknowledgement about this art form. On the contrary, these women, these dancers are most of the time stigmatized and looked down upon, so much so that these women themselves have come to see their profession as something not to be proud of. This paper proposes to talk of the Nachni s in the Rarh Bengal area—especially, Purulia—to unearth some not-so-pretty causes for the stigma that keeps these artisans of Nachni dance from holding their head high in society.

Introduction

This book explores Josephine Baker and Katherine Dunham’s contributions to the page and screen to shed new light on their intellectual interventions as Black women artists in midcentury transatlantic culture. Cinematic and literary spaces were for Baker and Dunham sites of mediation and marginalization in which they frequently shared authorship with white men. Yet they are also rare visual and textual records of Black women dancers’ midcentury artistry and authorship. On the page, they voiced the challenges of navigating interwar global spaces as young Black women, and their narratives shed vital light on the origins and purpose of their art. On the screen, they claimed the right to stardom while at the same time retaining some artistic autonomy and even shaping their films’ aesthetics.

PEWARISAN TARI TAREK PUKAT (TARIAN PESISIR ACEH) DI SANGGAR CUT NYAK DHIEN

The purpose of this research is to study Tarek Pukat Dance as an expression of coastal community life and its inheritance efforts in Cut Nyak Dhien studio. The research method used qualitative method with interdisciplinary approach. The research data was collected by observation, interview, and documentation. The validity check of data using source triangulation, then analyzed using flow reduction, presentation, and data verification The results showed that, Tarek Pukat Dance was created by Yuslizar in 1958. Tarek Pukat describes the activities of fishermen who catch fish at sea tarek means tug whereas trawl is a kind of net used to catch fish. This dance is danced by 13 dancers consisting of 8 femaledancers and 5 male dancers. Dance has 19 motion patterns that are divided into two namely 7 patterns of movement for female dancers and 14 for male dancers movement patterns with various floor patterns for male dancers dancedisari danced women dance with sitting position bersaf. The theme used in this dance is the activity of fishermen who are looking for fish at sea. His companions are Serune Kalee, Geundrang Aceh and Rapa'I and Tarek Pukat dance poems. the clothing used in this dance is very simple from the original grip of Aceh tradition. From the clothing of women dancers Acehnese clothes, long black trousers, songket covering up to the knees and scarves wrapped around the head, ropes of Aceh Pangang, Aceh necklaces and Aceh clothing bros while male dancers wear only black long-sleeved shirts and black trousers wrapped in kebuang and headbands. The property used is fish body, fishing hat and rope as trawl. from the motion of the endangered handler to the closing motion is an expression of the life of the fishermen looking for the fish at sea. So this dance should remain inherited and forwarded to future generations who will come with Inheritance Dance Tarek Pukat through Learning In Studio Cut Nyak Dhien. the existing activities were violated by Cut Nyak Dhien while the first thing involved about the general pattern of the existing training at Cut Nyak Dhien studio were: training schedule in Sanggar, training guidance from the studio coach, making basic movements as warming up, distributing material for training and organizing dance groups . In the process of learning the existence of students, trainers, goals, materials, media methods, embedded values are violated and evaluation. Abstrak Tujuan penelitian ini adalah mengkaji Tari Tarek Pukat sebagai ekspresi kehidupan masyarakat pesisir dan upaya pewarisannya di sanggar Cut Nyak Dhien. Metode penelitian menggunakan metode kualitatif dengan pendekatan interdisiplin. Data penelitian dikumpulkan dengan teknik observasi, wawancara, dan dokumentasi. Pemeriksaan keabsahan data menggunakan triangulasi sumber, kemudian dianalisis menggunakan alur reduksi, penyajian, dan verifikasi data. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa, Tari Tarek Pukat diciptakan oleh Yuslizar pada tahun1958. Tarek Pukat menggambarkan aktivitas para nelayan yang menangkap ikan dilaut tarek berarti tarik sedangkan pukat adalah alat sejenis jaring yang digunakan untuk menangkap ikan. Tarian ini ditarikan oleh 13 penari yang terdiri dari 8 penari wanita dan 5 penari pria. Tarian ini mempunyai 19 pola gerakan yang dibagi menjadi dua yaitu 7 pola gerakan untuk penari wanita dan 14 untuk pola gerakan penari pria dengan pola lantai bermacam ragam untuk penari lelakisedangkan penari wanita menari dengan posisi duduk bersaf. Tema yang digunakan pada tarian ini yaitu aktivitas masyarakat nelayan yang sedang mencari ikan dilaut. Pengiringnya yaitu Serune Kalee, Geundrang Aceh dan Rapa’I serta syair tari Tarek Pukat. busana yang digunakan dalam tarian ini sangat sederhana dari pakain tradisi Aceh yang sebenarnya.dari pakain penari wanita baju Aceh,celana hitam panjang, songket yang menutup sampai lutut dan selendang yang dililitkan di kepala,tali Pinggang Aceh, kalung Aceh dan bros baju Aceh sedangkan para penari laki-laki hanya menggunakan baju lengan panjang berwarna hitam dan celana panjang berwarna hitam sarung yang di selempangkan kebahu serta ikat kepala. Properti yang digunakan yaitu raga ikan, topi nelayan dan tali sebagai pukat. dari gerak pawang engkot sampain gerak penutup merupakan ekspresi kehidupan para nelayan yang mencari ikan dilaut. Sehingga tarian ini harus tetap diwariskan dan diteruskan kepada generasi penerus yang akan datang dengan Pewarisan Tari Tarek Pukat melalui Pembelajaran Di Sanggar Cut Nyak Dhien. kegiatan yang ada disanggar Cut Nyak Dhien adapun hal yang terlibat pertama mengenai pola umum latihan yang ada pada sanggar Cut Nyak Dhien yaitu: jadwal latihan di Sanggar, bimbingan latihan dari pelatih sanggar, membuat gerakan dasar sebagai pemanasan, pembagain materi untuk latihan dan pembagain kelompok penari. Didalam proses pembelajaran adanya siswa, pelatih,tujuan,materi,metode media,nilai-nilai yang ditanamkan disanggar dan evaluasi. Kata Kunci: Tari Tarek Pukat

In Defence of Ballet: Women, Agency and the Philosophy of Pleasure

This article offers a novel approach to conceptualising ballet practice as a leisurely activity that exudes pleasure. It argues that the notion of pleasure in ballet has been neglected in scholarly research which criticises ballet for its negative impact on the physical and mental health of dancers, its authoritarian teaching methods and its trivial aesthetic that objectifies the female body and perpetuates the construction of stereotypical gender roles within a patriarchal society. This study focuses on the lived experiences of female amateur ballet participants, emphasising their agency. It provides first-hand accounts to illuminate the significance of ballet in women dancers’ personal growth, development and psychological wellbeing, drawing on sociologist Roger Caillois's categorisation of pleasures involved in games and play. Overall, the article highlights the multiple types of pleasure associated with ballet dancing as a key motivational factor and rationale for participation.

Black Dance and the Fight for Flight

The arts have fulfilled a major historical role as mediums of expressivity for people of African descent during the 1960s. It is during this important decade that a number of political and artistic movements came to rise—like a pot waiting to boil over—as a result of decades of sociopolitical precedents that came to a head, sparking revolutionary responses by grassroots communities worldwide. This body of writing is an excerpt of a larger study the author conducted on the role of West African dance as performed by Black women dancers in New York City–based dance companies. Because of the techniques of djembe and sabar dance within traditional West African contexts for both dancers and drummers alike, the author closely examines these styles as leading examples of the types of physical movement within political movements of the 1960s era—movements that empowered and liberated oppressed peoples during moments of high tension.