Purpose Of The Text
Gottchild’s text illuminates the invisibilized presence of
African Americans in crafting the essences of American concert dance and
culture and how racism factors into this doing. Her work offers a particularly
insightful interpretation of the Black dancing body, “as a geography of the
body itself” contextualized via, “personal experience, critical analysis of
visual and print documentation, and through the eyes of the 24 contemporary
dance practitioners interviewed for this book” (xiii). According to Gottschild,
“This book is the latest effort in my border-crossing pursuit to shed light on
the role of African Americans in shaping American consciousness/culture and to
investigate the role of racism in this equation” (8). The main purpose of this
text was to juxtapose Gottschild’s personal dance stories with the testimonies
of expert dance practitioners in order to effectively substantiate Gottschild’s
theories and experiences.
Summary Of The Major
Thesis
Gottschild examines the physical attributes of the Black
dancing body and how they are fetishized and criticized and argues that the
Black dancing body is more than the sum of its parts. The Africanist aesthetic
in American dance is evident, yet doesn’t ever assume an integral part and this
text is determined to resolve this negligence. Racism remains relevant in the
dance world, like the world in general. And the cause for racial indifference
within the world of dance is the lack of racial dialogue, the lack of
representation of race and the lack of diversity. Fear of discussing this
subject matter keeps us ignorant and full of hostility and resentment, thereby
devaluing the effects/affects of race in dance. Gottschild’s thesis suggests
that we must refrain from the subtleties with which we use to address the topic
of race in dance and her text utilizes a candid approach to confronting the
ugly truths and harsh realities that are attached to it.
Methodology
Gottschild’s work blends interviews, performance analysis
and personal testimonies to compose a descriptive case study that utilizes
qualitative, historical and cultural research methods. This text is a
historiography of Black dance charting the events, trials, and triumphs of
Black dance and dancers and exposing the perspectives, biases, and imaginings,
as well as misconceptions that have shaped this legacy.
Chapters Breakdown
The first chapter entitled Latitude I & Black White
Dance Dancers addresses race relations and racism in dance and describes what
I’ve decided is central to my definition of the Black dance aesthetic - “Black
bodies tend to be put together strong-you know, the connections are good and
strong. So when black dancers move, my image is that they take advantage of
those strong connections in their bodies so they can be reckless in a ay that
white dancers can’t be” (31).
The second chapter entitled The Physical Terrain &
Position: Bujones/Zollar Interviews & Location: Who’s There addresses
the difference in physicality and aesthetic qualities between the practice of
Black and white artists and the stereotypes associated with these factors.
The third chapter entitled Latitude II & Feet
addresses preference for a particular body type and the way it moves and
reflects on the significance of foot articulations.
The fourth chapter entitled Butt describes the fetish with
this part of the Black bodies’ anatomical structure and its significance to the
Black dancing body.
The fifth chapter entitled Skin/Hair & Location: To
Be or Not… focuses on the stereotypes, misconceptions and prejudices against
Black features.
The sixth chapter entitled Latitude III &
Soul/Spirit examines the core of the Africanist dance aesthetic and reveals the
depth of its interpretation.
The seventh chapter entitled Blood Memories, Spirit Dances
& Position: From Coon to Cool & Location: Horizon examines
Black choreography, its prominent choreographers and the depth and meaning of
their work.
Conclusions
While Gottschild acknowledges the advancements Black dance
has made in light of its enduring she also acknowledges that this battle has
yet to be won. “Things have and haven’t changed” (291). A post-racial era is no
truer than a colorblind America and race issues must remain under examination
in America as well as in the dance community. The whole US culture is guilty in
some way or another for condemning differences instead of praising and
celebrating them. Ultimately Gottschild’s work drives at dismantling the
misguided preconceived notions, which have negatively classified Black dance
and advises that doing so is crucial to the revitalization of its legacy and reinforcement
of its validity.
Value Assessment
The dance world is clearly not “beyond politics” and
Gottschild addresses the racial stereotypes, misconceptions, and prejudices
that both performers and viewers experience. This text is effective in spanning
fields in multidisciplinary dialogue and engaging with current conversations
about the artistry and contributions of African American artists marked as
“Black dance.” Gottschild reminds readers that so long as the “dominant
culture” is appropriating the aesthetic of the “inferior culture”
misappropriations are null because this “is right, it is the normative
standard, and all others should measure up to it and buy into it. It is [this
context] that the term black dance takes on a particularly demeaning connotation”
(22).
Perhaps future discussions about “Black dance” as its own
dance aesthetic worthy of study and practice due to its invaluable contribution
to American dance will end its demeaning connotations. The shape of American
dance cannot be actualized without considering Black dance at its core.
Conveniently culling out the contributions of the Africanist aesthetic in
American dance negates the Americanization of modern dance and ballet and
therefore invisibilizes those innovations in American concert dance as well.
Ultimately Gottschild’s work concisely informs the reader that the segregation
of Black dance has not only determined its discredit and marginalization but
also deprived it of its influential representation in American concert dance.
Related Texts
Defining
Black dance is certainly an ongoing task of practitioners, scholars and
enthusiasts alike and a discussion that describes the Black dancing body itself
and the articulations of its parts, furthers the awareness of this phenomenon.
In the first chapter of Susan Manning’s text Modern Dance, Negro Dance Race in
Motion she exposes the “metaphorical minstrelsy” of modern dance choreographer
Helen Tamiris in the same way Gottschild draws attention to Blanchine’s
“Americanization” of Ballet. These references were meant to reveal the
Africanist dance aesthetic in American dance that has and in many ways
continues to be invisibilized by misappropriation and discredit. In African-American
dance: Researching a complex history, Jackson suggests that, “a vast amount of
research still needs to be done in uncovering the rich African-American and
African dance heritage” and Gottschild’s series-Waltzing in the Dark; Digging
the Africanist Presence in American Performance and The Black Dancing Body-is
doing this work. The Black Dancing Body situates its place in the canon of an
ongoing discourse that seeks to not only appropriately define Black dance but
also negate the stigmas ascribed to Black dance and illuminate its vital
contributions to American concert dance.
Questions The Book
Raises
Can Black dancers dance white dance and can white dancers
dance Black dance? Can Black dancing bodies be trained to dance the way white
dancing bodies dance and vice versa? Is there always a statement being made
about racism embedded in multicultural casting? Will tokenism satisfy
desegregation in American concert dance? “Why was it that the white world loved
the culture but disdained its creators-loved black dance but
oppressed/repressed the black dancer, the black dancing body” (5)? “How and
what differentiates these separate bodies” (6)?
I agree with Chuck Davis that, “white bodies can do (and
teach) African dance [if] they have been trained in the African cultural
context. In every instance, the cultural riches are diluted by segregation from
the cultural source, resulting in an artistic vacuum and an aesthetic loss”
(140). I admit that there may not always be a statement being made about racism
embedded in multicultural casting, but I don’t doubt that audiences’ awareness
of multicultural casting as a possible attempt to dispel racism is simply
ignored. Speaking from the Black experience, tokenism will never satisfy
desegregation in American concert dance, it will simply allow white America to
perpetuate the myth that racism is past tense. Gottschild supposes that, “the
ongoing power of racism and its perpetual grip on world consciousness” is why
“the white world loved the culture but disdained its creators” (5). I only hope
that these inquiries will generate subsequent investigations and in doing so produce
a substantial accumulation of text aimed at effectively characterizing the
aesthetics of Black dance and its fundamental station in American concert
dance.
Dixon-Gottschild, Brenda. The Black Dancing Body: A
Geography from Coon to Cool. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Print.
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