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Back to topDancing Many Drums: Excavations In African American Dance (Studies in Dance History #19) (Paperback)
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Description
Few will dispute the profound influence that African American music and movement has had in American and world culture. Dancing Many Drums explores that influence through a groundbreaking collection of essays on African American dance history, theory, and practice. In so doing, it reevaluates "black" and "African American " as both racial and dance categories. Abundantly illustrated, the volume includes images of a wide variety of dance forms and performers, from ring shouts, vaudeville, and social dances to professional dance companies and Hollywood movie dancing.
Bringing together issues of race, gender, politics, history, and dance, Dancing Many Drums ranges widely, including discussions of dance instruction songs, the blues aesthetic, and Katherine Dunham’s controversial ballet about lynching, Southland. In addition, there are two photo essays: the first on African dance in New York by noted dance photographer Mansa Mussa, and another on the 1934 "African opera," Kykunkor, or the Witch Woman.
About the Author
Thomas F. DeFrantz is associate professor of music and theater arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey’s Embodiment of African American Culture (Oxford U Press, 2004). In addition to scholarly articles, he has written on dance for the Village Voice and Philadelphia Inquirer. He is a dancer and choreographer and for many years directed the dance history program at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York City.
Praise For…
"Dancing Many Drums unearths many artists and performance companies whose work should be made available to the scholarly community and the general public. DeFrantz presents new scholarship by new writers who are well versed in the history of African American dancing, many through actual dance practice."—Anita Gonzalez, Florida State University