09 1245 BookletFinal - Giant Food · 2011-02-14 · 09_1245_BookletFinal Author: dflinchbaugh...
Transcript of 09 1245 BookletFinal - Giant Food · 2011-02-14 · 09_1245_BookletFinal Author: dflinchbaugh...
Cover Photo: Photo of BREAKDANCING; November 1982 (Photo by David Corio/Redferns)
3 4 8EARLY DANCE
FORMS19th & 20th
CENTURIESCURRENT
TRENDS
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At GIANT, we are committed to being an organization
that fosters cultural values of all ethnicities. Diversity is
integral to who we are and how we operate as a company.
We can best deliver on our pledge to make a difference in
our customers’ and associates lives every day by
integrating diversity into our business initiatives.
We have a long history of celebrating Black History
Month, this year we will be celebrating this month long
observance by recognizing the history of dance and the
role it has played within the African American culture.
Please join us in celebrating the evolution of African
American dance and the impact that it has had on
dance as we know it today.
AFRICAN AMERICAN DANCEDance has always been an integral part of daily life in Africa. In the
Americas, dance played an important role in helping enslaved Africans
maintain a connection with their homeland and keep their cultural
traditions alive. As they had done before enslavement, Africans
danced for special occasions, such as a birth or a marriage, or
simply as a part of their daily activities. And dance helped affirm
life and the possibility of a better future.
African Americans sang and danced in the places where they worked
as slaves, and as they converted to the religions of the Americas, they
incorporated these traditions into their practice of these religions. Many
North American slave owners, in adhering to strict Protestant tenets,
barred Africans from most forms of dancing. Africans found ways of
getting around the prohibitions of the slavemasters, however. For
example, since lifting the feet was considered dancing, many
dances included foot shuffling and hip and torso movement.
Dances dominant through the 18th century included the ring shout or
ring dance, the calenda, the chica, and the juba. The ring shout
originated in West African religious ceremonies, and was performed by
blacks throughout the Eastern and Southern United States as a part of
Protestant worship. It was danced by a circle of people who shuffled
and stomped their feet and swayed their hips. The calenda and the
chica were sensual mating dances; partners began these dances at a
distance from each other and gradually moved closer and closer.
The jiglike juba, a competitive dance in which dancers challenged one
another to demonstrate
their agility and rhythmic
abilities, was performed
throughout the American
South and the Caribbean. R
UNITED STATES - DECEMBER 11: New freed
from slavery, a group of African Americans
dance during a wedding celebration.
(Photo by Mansell/Mansell/Time & Life
Pictures/Getty Images)
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The dances of the plantation moved onto the stage in the 1800s.
Minstrel Shows, a popular form of entertainment that included music
and dance as well as theatrical skits, introduced black dance to large
audiences during the 1800s. These shows originated in the late
1700s and early 1800s from parodies of blacks by whites and from
performances by blacks in city streets. As popular entertainment,
they were performed by both blacks and whites.
The dancing in minstrel shows derived from the foot-shuffling dances
of plantation life. Initially, blacks appeared as caricatures and were
often the target of ridicule, but they drew from their cultural
traditions even as they made fun of themselves. In 1891
The Creole Show, a revue staged on Broadway in
New York City, brought minstrel dance styles, as well
as other plantation dances, to a wide audience.
The Creole Show and similar revues introduced the first dance
created by blacks to become popular with the white population:
the cakewalk. This couples dance had been performed for
decades by blacks on plantations to celebrate harvests, and
it eventually turned into a competitive dance for which the
best couple was awarded a cake.
Left: 1901: African-American dancers
perform the Cakewalk at the Pan Am
Expo in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by
Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Right: Photo of TWIST and Chubby
Checker; Posed studio portrait of
Chubby Checker doing the Twist
(Photo by RB/Redferns)
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Other black-influenced dance trends
that spread to the white population
followed: the Charleston in the 1920s,
the Lindy Hop and the Jitterbug
in the 1930s and 1940s, and the
Twist in the 1960s.
Above: Leon James & Willa Mae
Ricker demonstrating a step
of The Lindy Hop. (Photo
by Gjon Mili//Time Life
Pictures/Getty Images)
Continued…
The 1920s and the 1930s were
an especially fruitful time for black
dance in the United States.
Blacks migrated to urban areas
in large numbers after World War I
ended in 1918. This migration,
along with the birth of various
black pride movements, led to
a flourishing of black culture,
especially in the Harlem
neighborhood of New York City.
During this period, which came
to be known as the Harlem
Renaissance, African American
developments in dance were
accompanied by similar
innovations in theater, music,
literature, and other arts.
Black musical theater, derived
from minstrel shows, continued
to popularize and legitimize black
dance traditions and black
performers, as it had in the 19th
century. Shuffle Along (1921), a
landmark Broadway show created
by blacks and with an all-black
cast, was immensely popular with
white audiences. In the
chorus line was
Josephine Baker,
who eventually
won fame and
adoration in
Paris, France,
performing dances
that reflected her African
American heritage. Many other
all-black shows, including Runnin’
Wild (1923), Chocolate Dandies
(1924), and Blackbirds of 1928
(1928), also played to
enthusiastic American
audiences in the 1920s
and 1930s.
Left: Nightclub singer Josephine Baker, 435, singing Brazilian natives’
song on stage at the Strand movie theater during her US tour.
(Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Right: 1935: Full-length image of American tap dancer and actor
Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson (1878 - 1949) dancing on a set of
wooden steps in director Walter Lang's film, ‘Hooray for Love.’
He stands on the top step, holding his hat and kicking one leg.
(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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A dance style initiated by blacks
that gained fame in the early 20th
century was tap dance, which
combined elements of African
influenced shuffle dances, English
clog dancing, and Irish jigs. Also
during the 1930s and 1940s,
blacks moved into ballet and
modern dance, dance forms
previously created and
performed by whites alone.
The Lester Horton Dance Theater,
founded in 1932, was the first
racially integrated dance troupe in
America. One of the major dancers
was Alvin Ailey, who served as the
group’s director from 1953 to
1954. Ailey left in 1958 to form his
own modern-dance company, the
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Other prominent black choreogra-
phers include Donald McKayle,
Debbie Allen, Talley Beatty, Garth
Fagan, Bill T. Jones, and Joel Hall.
29th August 1968:
American dancer and
choreographer Alvin
Ailey (right) performs
on stage with his
company, the Alvin
Ailey American
Dance Theater, at
the Edinburgh Festival.
(Photo by Central
Press/Getty Images)
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The past 20 years in African American dance have been rich in
innovations as well as connections with the past. The definition of
dance has broadened beyond ballet, modern, and jazz. Popular
and social dances, including the urban black dance forms of break
dancing and hip-hop, have been recognized for their artistry and
expressiveness. All-female companies such as Urban Bush
Women have been formed, as has a company devoted exclusively
to hip-hop dance, The Pure Movement Dance Company.
99
WASHINGTON: Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theatre
perform during ‘A Celebration
of America’ by Jazz at
Lincoln Center and
The Rockefeller Foundation
at The John F Kennedy
Center for the Performing
Arts January 19, 2009
in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty
Images for Jazz at
Lincoln Center)
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Dance created and performed by
African Americans has become a
permanent part of American dance.
Contemporary dance companies
founded by blacks tour both nationally
and internationally. The diversity of
dance styles and genres is represented
by such groups as Alvin Ailey American
Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem,
Garth Fagan’s Bucket Dance Theater,
Philadelphia Dance Company, The Cleo
Parker Robinson Dance Company,
Dayton Contemporary Dance Company,
Kariamu & Company, and Forces of
Nature Dance Theatre.
Many African American dance companies
have specialized in reconstructing traditional African dances, keeping
these dance forms alive in America. They have influenced a generation
of choreographers who blend African styles with movements from
modern and popular dance. These groups include the African American
Dance Ensemble; KanKouran West African Dance Company; Ko-Thi
Dance Company; Dinizulu and His African Dancers, Drummers, and
Singers; and Muntu Dance Theater.
Preformers from the Ezibu Muntu Dance
Company dance during a Kwanzaa celebration
26 December 2004 at the Lincoln Theater in
Washington. Celebrated between 26
December and 01 January, AFP
PHOTO/Brendan SMIALOWSKI (Photo credit
should read BRENDAN
SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
R“African American Dance,” Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2009 http://encarta.msn.com ©
1997-2009 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Continued…
A breakdancer in a
New York subway
station doing a
handstand, while
a crowd of
spectators look
on, Manhattan,
NY, USA
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Additional information available on Black History Month
at www.giantfood.com