Whites began blackening their faces and imitating slave dancers as early as the 1800s. John During, one of the first American professional dancers, described parts of his routine in 1789 as containing "shuffles A movement of slave dancers. The first worldwide dance imitating slave dancers was the "Jump Jim Crow" by Thomas Rice in 1828 this dance copied the movement of a crippled Slave and became the basis for an era of American entertainment founded on the crude Stereo type of the dancing slave took it and adapted it to their out style After beginning in New York City, progressive, or cool, jazz developed primarily on the West Coast in the late 1940s and early 50s. Intense yet ironically relaxed tonal sonorities are the major characteristic of this jazz form, while the melodic line is less convoluted than in bop. Lester Young's style was fundamental to the music of the cool saxophonists Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, and Stan Getz .
Lindy hop is an African-American dance that originated in the Savoy Ballroom Harlem, New York in 1926. It is a mix of different dances including the Charleston, Jazz and Tap. The dance came around the time that Jazz music evolved and is a member of the swing dance family. It is a partner dance that consists of both 8 and 6 count steps and is quite fast. The dance style involved many kicks flicks and turns.
Alvin Ailey’s: Revelations is a Gospel Performance show. Alvin Ailey was an American choreographer who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City. He was known for popularizing modern dance and brining forth the participation of African-American in the 1900s. Ailey's choreographic masterpiece Revelations is believed to be the best known and most often seen modern dance performance. In Revelations, there are seven sections that we watched in class.
Jazz became so popular during these times, because life in America back than was rough for a lot of people. Some jazz was sung about these problems and how people dealt with them and their opinions on life. Other types of jazz were played to bring excitement to people’s everyday lives and give them a time where they could dance and enjoy life. One of the first types of jazz that contributed a lot to the jazz we know today was ragtime. Ragtime was big during the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s and originated in the southern United States.
Another movement I noticed was the performers tip-toeing very quickly. I felt this movement represented the performer trying to remain hidden on stage. I also noticed a particular movement in which the performer smoothly gyrated his hips back and forth. I felt that this was some kind of victory dance. The next movement I noticed was two dancers doing a kind of “stomping” on the stage.
The dancers used the whole stage poured their energy all over it. The stage and dancers were colorful and fun. I like in this dance that it showcased each person and showed everyones talent and style. This dance used a lot of patterns and rhythm to create such a fun performance. I felt like the male dancer in this performance really stood out and was exceptionally talented.
Contemporary uses the body’s natural lines and energy to create new movements which have a greater range and fluidity then conventional dance. Just add water and Aether are both very unusual dance pieces. They are very out there and sometimes make you uncomfortable they way they move their bodies. Chunky Move likes to break away from traditional dance and break boundaries. In one of their pieces ‘Hydra’, choreographed by Gideon Obarzanek
Jazz is a musical genre that has for a very long time captivated its audience. Jazz music can make someone dance, indulge the moods of its listener, or just make you think. Jazz music can sound simple and straight forward, but there are many structures, and freedoms which make up jazz music. Jazz has structures, by which its musicians are given a "guide" to follow. Jazz also has freedoms, which allow the jazz musicians to expand, and alter the music.
Besides the obvious black face that white people put on in minstrel theater with the help of burnt cork, the tropes of the genre include stylizations or parodies of black music, dance, speech, and character. Actual blackface theater was already in decline toward the end of the nineteenth century, but here and there it survived much later. In 1848, Frederick Douglass scornfully branded blackface minstrels as “the filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied to them by nature ( Blackface and Blackness ,7).” This should remind us that in the years when blackface theater was most popular, slavery was still an American fact of life in Southern states. As one historian put the matter, for a “half-century” these entertainments represented “insurement to the uses of white supremacy.” The
The 1950s, in large part due to Rock ‘n’ Roll lit a fire of rebellion in the white youth of America. Rock ‘n’ Roll’s opposition did not realize that the more ardent and violent its treatment against not just rock ‘n’ roll, but African-Americans as well, would create more dissention. Altchuler quotes the Pittsburgh Courier that the resistance to rock ‘n’ roll is “an indirect attack against Negroes, of course, because they invented rock ‘n’ roll and because it has captivated the younger generation of whites that are breaking down dance floors and gutting night clubs…As between Rock ‘n’ Roll…and the chill austerities of white supremacy, we think young white Americans will choose the former with all its implications” (42). Rock ‘n’ Roll opened the emotions of people like never before and challenged the established beliefs of society concerning race,