Black Tradition In American Dance
Black Tradition In American DanceSince the 1920s, the term “jazz dance” has been used to describe a constantly evolving form of popular and artistic dance movement. It is a reflection of a popular culture, and as the culture changes so does the face of jazz dance. Dance is Unique and has individuality no matter what. It is this factor that allows it to either stay the same or change with every new year. Therefore, social dances of the 1920s like the Charleston and Black Bottom are known as jazz dances, but so are the theatre dances of choreographer Bob Fosse. The style of the syncopated sounds of tap dancing can be considered as jazz dancing, but so can the body popping movements of breakdancing. The common theme tying these seemingly disparate entities together is rhythm, or more specifically, rhythm steeped in African influences. The variation in style results from individual approaches and applications. Although a style of jazz dance movement may surface and soon disappear, it is rhythms - born in Africa and refined in America - that form the basis, the common element, of American jazz dancing.
Jazz dance is a blend of African and European traditions in an American culture. They feel that European movement contributed an elegance, and that African movement gave a rhythmic idea. The importance of rhythm in African music and dance is by using the metaphor of a drumbeat for the heartbeat of Africa. It would seem that, although European movement has given a shape to jazz dance, African rhythmic style is the factor that has given jazz dance its character and appeal. To trace the history of jazz dancing in America, it is therefore necessary to begin in Africa.
Africans danced in celebration of birth, puberty, marriage, and death. There were also dances to demonstrate competitive skills. An entire community from children to the elderly would dance in a communal expression of their cultural beliefs. Dances were primarily accompanied by the beat of various types of drums, as well as string instruments, chimes, reedpipes, and other instruments. This reliance on dance movement to interpret life carried over to the culture of the African-American during the time of slavery. The story of jazz dance begins with the importing of African culture to America through the American slave trade. African dance and has contributed the many characteristics to dance in America.
The American slave trade began in 1619 with the arrival of Dutch trading ships carrying a cargo of Africans to Virginia. However, Africans were imported as slaves to the West Indies as early as 1518. The retention of African culture by those in slavery was stronger in the West Indies than in America, as the Spanish and French rulers listened to the more interpretive view of dancing taken by the Catholic church. In America, the Protestant church strongly disapproved of dance of any kind. Therefore, dances that occurred in the West Indies retained more...
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