Musical Theater Dance Training and Choreography in the 1920–1930s

This chapter provides an examination of how Broadway dancers were trained, the introduction of jazz dance to Broadway, the 1920s gradual move away from unison line dancing in favor of the individuated chorus, and how a few dance directors began to consider dance in musicals in relation to the libretto as an integrated and meaningful addition to the musical play. The common practice of Black choreographers being pushed aside while white choreographers claimed credit for their work and the essential role Black dance teachers and coaches played in training white dancers for Broadway is discussed here. Examinations of choreographic works by dance directors Buddy Bradley, Charlie Davis, Seymour Felix, Sammy Lee, Albertina Rasch, and George Balanchine establish a historical basis in preparation for the radical innovations to be discussed in subsequent chapters.

Dancing the Museum Black: Activist Animations of the Social

This chapter considers concepts of activism and Black presence in experiences of dance in museums. Working through concepts of Afropessimism, Afrofuturism, and the theoretical gathering notion of a Black Commons, I will offer four case studies of dance in the museum that render the space towards collective Black possibilities. The choreographic works Dapline! (2016), fastPASTdance (2017), as well as a reconstruction of Instead of Allowing Some Thing to Rise Up to Your Face Dancing Bruce and Dance and Other Things (2000) and the moving-image object APESHIT (2018) offer evidence of a special possibility for Black dance in the museum space; a creation of social space too-often denied to Black people in diaspora.

Black Media Reporting on Theater, Dance, and Jazz Clubs in Canada: From Shuffle along to Rockhead’s Paradise

Canada has a history of de facto Jim Crow (1911–1954). It also has a historical Black press that is intimately connected to Black America through transnational conversations, and diasporic migration. This article argues that Canada’s Black newspapers played a pivotal role in promoting Black performance during a time when they were scarcely covered in the dominant media. Drawing on news coverage from the 1920s through 1950s of black dance, musicals, and jazz clubs this article examines three case studies: Shuffle Along (1921–1924), the first all- Black Broadway musical to appear at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theater, Alberta-born dancer Len Gibson (1926–2008), who revolutionized modern dance in Canada in the 1940s and 1950s, and the Montreal jazz club Rockhead’s Paradise (1928–1980), a pivotal site in the city’s Little Burgundy, a Black neighborhood that thrived in the 1930s through 1950s. The authors argue that when Black people were excluded from and/or derogatorily portrayed in the dominant media, Canada’s Black press celebrated collective achievement by authenticating Black performance. By incorporating Canada’s Black Press into conversations about Jim Crow and performance, we gain a deeper understanding of Black creative output and resistance during the period.

BALLET FOLCLÓRICO MERCEDES BAPTISTA: ENTRE BRASILIDADE E NEGRITUDE NO RIO DE JANEIRO DAS DÉCADAS DE 1950 E 1960 / Mercedes Baptista Folk Ballet: between Brazilianess and Blackness in Rio de Janeiro during the 1950’s and 1960’s

Abordagem histórico-crítica sobre a emergência de uma dança negra cênica no Rio de Janeiro, nas décadas de 1950 e 1960, consolidada pela bailarina e coreógrafa Mercedes Baptista mediante a articulação das técnicas do balé clássico, das danças modernas e de consistente pesquisa acerca das danças afro-brasileiras e dos pés de dança do candomblé. Levando em conta as possibilidades de abertura e transformação dos códigos próprios do que hoje é uma das vertentes de maior peso do que se entende por danças afro, que permitiram a criação de novas poéticas e metodologias, o texto aponta para a existência de uma estética negra que se construiu no campo das artes cênicas no contexto da diáspora negra.Palavras-chave: Mercedes Baptista; História da dança; Danças negras. AbstractThis text takes a historical and critical approach to the emergence of Black concert dance in Rio de Janeiro between the 1950s and 1960s. This movement found its consolidation through the ballet dancer and choreographer Mercedes Baptista’s articulations between classical ballet, modern dances, as well as her consistent research regarding secular and religious Afro-Brazilian dances. By considering the possibilities of openings and transformations within the codes of Danças Afro that allow for the creation of new poetics and methodologies, the text also seeks to base the existence of a Black aesthetics in the performance arts within the context of the black diaspora.Keywords: Mercedes Baptista; Dance history; Black dance.

Om Claude Marchant: Ett historiografiskt bidrag till svart danshistoria i Sverige

In this article, the concept of «black dance» is used as a critical tool to explore the lifelong dance achievements of the black dancer, choreographer and pedagogue Claude Marchant (1919–2004) in relation to history making. Marchant’s history in the US and to some extent in Europe from the 1930s to the 1960s is mapped and analysed, with the aim of better understanding his work in Sweden, and more specifically in Gothenburg. While Marchant is mentioned in previous dance historiographies, there are no in-depth explorations of his life and work. This exploration, therefore, complements both Swedish and international dance research, with an example that problematises history production in relation to black artists such as Marchant. It is argued that a participatory «dance-where-we-dig» method is a useful tool for instigating locally situated historiographical processes of change, and can relate artists such as Marchant to broader, transnational contexts.

Huff! Puff! And Blow the House Down

The paradigmatic lens for contemporary ballet in South Africa hereafter traces the foray by some black choreographers into a reimagining of ballet’s form and choreographic approach. This chapter highlights some of the key historical moments and figures who have shaped ballet in South Africa and comments on the impact of the colonial and apartheid era. The epistemological import of a few stalwarts in ballet who have served its development are singled out and discussed. While Marina Grut and others provide a comprehensive testament to “white ballet,” few scholarly accounts of defiant “black dance in South Africa” are readily available. The contemporary conditions of black ballet dancers’ lives, many born in townships and jettisoned onto world stages, are laid bare. The chapter ends with a brief unpacking of works by Mthuthuzeli November and Dada Masilo, suggesting how these choreographers are changing the ballet brand.

The Race of Contemporary Ballet

This chapter considers the tripartite formation of who, what, and how in considerations of Africanist aesthetics and Black mobilizations that fuel contemporary ballet. Who dances contemporary ballet, and are they Black? What sorts of Black dance movements are deployed in contemporary ballet? And, most important, how does a Black attitude mark performances within ballet as belonging to a contemporary moment? The chapter presumes that contemporary ballet emerges in direct relationship to Africanist aesthetics. It considers work by William Forsythe, Alonzo King, and Twyla Tharp as a trio of artists whose work continues to circulate with different relationships to questions of Black dancers, dances, dancing, and the contemporary.