Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance

382 Pages·2001·3.06 MB·English

by  Thomas Defrantz

DANCING
MANY
DRUMS
Excavations
in African
American
Dance
Thomas F. DeFrantz
DANCING MANY DRUMS
   
APublicationoftheSocietyofDanceHistoryScholars
ThomasF.DeFrantz,VolumeEditor
SDHSEditorialBoard
Chair: ElizabethAldrich,DanceHeritageCoalition
ThomasF.DeFrantz,MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology
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CollegeChicago
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MadeleineNichols,DanceDivision,NewYorkPublicLibraryforthe
PerformingArts
MarianSmith,UniversityofOregon
BarbaraSparti,Rome
LindaJ.Tomko(exofficio),UniversityofCalifornia,Riverside
Advisors: SelmaJeanneCohen
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IvorGuest
TitlesinPrint
TheOriginsoftheBoleroSchool,editedbyJavierSuarez-PajaresandXoánM.
Carreira
CarloBlasisinRussiabyElizabethSouritz,withprefacebySelmaJeanne
Cohen
Of,By,andForthePeople:DancingontheLeftinthe1930s,editedbyLynn
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DancinginMontreal:SeedsofaChoreographicHistorybyIroTembeck
TheMakingofaChoreographer:NinettedeValoisand‘‘BarauxFolies-Bergère’’by
BethGenné
NedWayburnandtheDanceRoutine:FromVaudevilletothe‘‘ZiegfeldFollies’’by
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RethinkingtheSylph:NewPerspectivesontheRomanticBallet,editedbyLynn
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DanceforExport:CulturalDiplomacyandtheColdWarbyNaimaPrevots,with
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JoséLimón:AnUnfinishedMemoir,editedbyLynnGarafola,withintroduction
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DancingDesires:ChoreographingSexualitiesonandofftheStage,editedby
JaneC.Desmond
DancingManyDrums:ExcavationsinAfricanAmericanDance,editedby
ThomasF.DeFrantz
A STUDIES IN DANCE HISTORY BOOK
DANCING MANY DRUMS
 
  
E 
T F. DF
T U  W P
TheUniversityofWisconsinPress
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Copyright©2002
TheBoardofRegentsoftheUniversityofWisconsinSystem
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PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Dancingmanydrums:excavationsin
AfricanAmericandance/editedbyThomasF.DeFrantz.
382pp. cm.—(Studiesindancehistory)
Includesbibliographicreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-299-17310-0(cloth:alk.paper)
ISBN0-299-17314-3(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.AfricanAmericandance—History.
2.AfricanAmericans—Sociallifeandcustoms.
I.DeFrantz,Thomas. II.Studiesindancehistory
(Unnumbered)
GV1624.7.A34.D38 2002
793.3'089'96073—dc21 2001001943
Publicationofthisvolumehasbeenmadepossibleinpartbyagenerousgrantfrom
RichardA.LonginhonorofKatherineDunham’s90thbirthday;
andbythegeneroussupportoftheAnonymousFund
oftheUniversityofWisconsin–Madison.
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xiii
AfricanAmericanDance:AComplexHistory 3
ThomasF.DeFrantz
Part1.Theory
1. ChristianConversionandtheChallengeof Dance 39
P.SterlingStuckey
2. DanceandIdentityPoliticsinAmericanNegro
Vaudeville:TheWhitmanSisters,1900–1935 59
NadineA.George
3. AwkwardMoves:DanceLessonsfromthe1940s 81
MaryaAnnetteMcQuirter
4. (Up)StagingthePrimitive:PearlPrimusand
‘‘theNegroProblem’’inAmericanDance 105
RichardC.Green
Part2.Practice
5. AfricanDanceinNewYorkCity 143
MarciaE.HeardandMansaK.Mussa
v
vi / 
6. From‘‘Messin’Around’’to‘‘FunkyWestern
Civilization’’:TheRiseandFallof Dance
InstructionSongs 169
SallyBanesandJohnF.Szwed
7. ‘‘MovesonTopof Blues’’:DianneMcIntyre’s
BluesAesthetic 205
VetaGoler
Part3.History
8. Kykunkor,ortheWitchWoman:AnAfrican
OperainAmerica,1934 233
MaureenNeedham
9. BetweenTwoEras:‘‘NortonandMargot’’
intheAfro-AmericanEntertainmentWorld 267
BrendaDixonGottschild
10. KatherineDunham’sSouthland:Protest
intheFaceof Repression 289
ConstanceValisHill
11. TheNewYorkNegroBalletinGreatBritain 317
DawnLilleHorwitz
Contributors 343
Index 347
Preface
ThisvolumeisatributetoAfricanAmericandancearchivistJoe
Nash. Its title comes from a 1976 article by Nash that under-
scoredthevarietyofexpressiveidiomsdancedbyAfricansofthe
1
diaspora. That article—and the ‘‘manydrums’’ of its title—sug-
gested a continuous history of African American dance practice
withcommonalitiesthatspannedmovementidioms.
InmanywaysNashcanbeviewedasaprogenitorofthefieldof
AfricanAmericandancestudies.BorninNewYorkin1919,Nash
taught himself basic ballet positions from books he borrowed as
2
a child from the library. He met Pearl Primus at the National
Youth Administration in the early 1940s and became her first
dancepartner,untilhebeganformalstudywithSyvillaFortand
KatherineDunham.AfterservingintheU.S.military,hedanced
in the 1946 revival of the musical Showboat choreographed by
HelenTamirisandbegancollectingprograms,photographs,clip-
pings,andothermemorabiliarelatedtoAfricanAmericandance
artists.Inthelate1940sand1950sheappearedinastringofWest
End and Broadway musicals, including Finian’s Rainbow (Lon-
don, 1947), Inside U.S.A. (1948), BlessYou All (1950), Flahooley
(1951),andMyDarlin’Aida(1952).HedancedintheNewYork
CityCenterLightOperaCompany’sproductionofCarmenJones;
wasafoundingmemberofAubreyHitchen’sNegroDanceThe-
ater in 1953; and performed as a guest artist with the compa-
nies of Primus,CharlesWeidman, and Donald McKayle. All the
whilehekeptaddingtohiscollection,andhecontinuedtocollect
memorabiliaafterheretiredfromperforming.In1982hebegan
teaching the dance history course at the Alvin Ailey American
Dance Center. Five years later he became a senior consultant to
vii
JoeNashandPearlPrimusinPrimus’sHaitianPlayDance,ontour,ca.1946(Photog-
rapherunknown;PhotographsandPrintsDivision,SchomburgCenterforResearchin
BlackCulture,theNewYorkPublicLibrary–Astor,LenoxandTildenFoundations;re-
producedwithpermission)
viii
 / ix
theAfricanAmericanTraditioninModernDanceprogramatthe
AmericanDanceFestival.
Eventually,Nash’spricelesscollectionofmemorabiliacameto
includesome2,000items,whichhedividedbetweentheSchom-
burg Center for Research in Black Culture, in New York City,
and the Tallahassee Black Archives and Museum in Florida. His
prescience and the passion he brought to his subject result in
the creation of the first major collection about African Ameri-
candance,andmanyofthephotographsinthepagesthatfollow
come from the Joe Nash Collection at the Schomburg Center.
Without Nash’s committed effort to preserve the history, prac-
tice,andtheoryofAfricanAmericandance,thisvolumecouldnot
exist.
The second part of the title derives from the sensation of ar-
chaeological recovery that permeates African American dance
scholarship today.While Nash’s collection is remarkably rich, it
is also, necessarily, a fragmentaryoffering. It is hardlyan under-
statement that the history of African American dance perfor-
mance has been documented insufficiently. Combing through
archives, newspapers, literature, and oral histories, the scholars
here reveal materials neglected by traditional studies of Ameri-
can dance history.While the subjects scrutinized in these explo-
rations of sacred, social, and concert dances may be unfamiliar
to many readers, these same subjects represent verifiable ‘‘high-
points’’forthefewscholarsworkinginthefieldofAfricanAmeri-
can dance history. Although very much alive, this field operates
verymuchonthemarginsof bothAfricanAmericanstudiesand
dancestudies.
This volume was prompted by a Congress on Research in
DanceSpecialTopicsConference,‘‘African-AmericanDance:Re-
searchingaComplexHistory,’’organizedbyJohnO.PerpenerIII
and hosted by the Department of Dance, College of Fine and
Applied Arts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 25–
27April1996.Thatlandmarkeventbroughttogetherartists,crit-
ics, and historians working within and around issues of histo-
riography and identity associated with African American dance
practice.Overthreedays,theparticipantsexploredtheprocessof