Test 1 Flashcards
(57 cards)
6 basic characteristics of African dance
• Flat-footed, favors gliding, dragging, or shuffling steps
• Performed from a crouch, knees flexed and body bent at the waist
• Generally imitate animals in realistic detail
• Places importance on improvisation which allows for freedom of individual expression
• Centrifugal, exploding outward from the hips
o The leg moves from the hip instead of the knee, the arm from the shoulder
• Swinging quality
Slave journey to the New World
• Procurement/acquiring of cargo o 1 month- a year o enticed slaves with dancing o abducted individually or in pairs o captured as POW and acquired through “dealers” • The Middle Passage o 15 days – 4 months o disease and malnutrition o roughly half of the slaves would be lost on the journey o shaved heads to prevent lice o forced to eat whatever was on hand o temporary blindness was common- developed from scurvy • Landing and disposal of slaves
Stono Insurrection
- Also referred to as the Cato conspiracy
- 1739 Stono plantation
- Slaves killed two guards, stole arms and ammunition, and escaped to Florida. “They marched to the beating of two drums and killed all whites that interfered.”
- Drums caused many slaves to gather together
- Lead to the banning of drums
- Some drums did survive, mostly in the Georgia costal islands and in Louisiana
Instruments used by slaves
• Tambourines made from cowhides stretched over cheese boxes
• Cow bones that could be knocked together to keep time
• Broom-straws on fiddle strings
• The human body
• Banjar or banjo
• Fiddle
• Pots and pans beaten as drums
• Quills/reeds
• Slave orchestras played for white owners on fiddle and tambourine
• Slave dances used banjo, fiddle, quills, tambourine, bones
o Rarely did they use drums, pots, or pans
o Almost always used voices and clapping
Buck, Buck, and Wing
o “It went two steps to the right, two steps to the left. The womens shake their skirts and the mens dance round them”
o Possibly danced by only men
o More authentic dance of the slave culture
o Buck and wing was later seen in minstrel shows
Pigeon Wing
o Performed over a large geographical area
o Slapping arms and legs and moving neck like a bird’
o More authentic dance of the slave culture
Jig
o Used in contests where slaves of one owner would compete against the slaves of another owner
o Would sometime use a bucket of water on the head
o Developed as an imitation of white culture
Cake Walk
o Common festival dance in Virginia
o Contest dance, winner sometimes won a cake
• when done for whites, the mistress of the big house would make a cake
• when done for other slaves, cornmeal cake
o Would sometimes use a bucket of water on the head
o Developed as an imitation of white culture
o A couple’s dance
o Was first known as the “chalk line walk”
Ring Shout
o One of the more primitive dances
o Performed in a ring
o Comparable to the dance done in the West Indies by the Congo Negros
o Sometimes had a spiritual element to it
• Buzzard Lope (animal dances)
Buzzard Lope
o Imitated buzzards that circled dead cows
Animal Dances
o Turkey Trot o Snake Hip o Fish Tail o Fish Bone o Camel Walk
Water Dances
o Water was carried on the head as a part of the dance and was usually used as a method of determining a winner in a contest
o “Set the Floor”
Juba Dance
o Originally dajuba- a sacred dance
o Distinguished by the patting that accompanied it
o “Patting Juba”- stamping, clapping, and slapping of arms, chest, and thighs, which appeared extensively when drums were prohibited
o a competitive dance of skill
o survives today as the hambone
Quadrilles, Cotillions, Reels
o Mostly of the circle and hand-clapping type, but were strongly influenced by the English Square Dance and the French Quadrille
o Sometimes competitive- house slaves vs. field slaves
o Turned into figure dances
o Cotillions- call and response
Saturday Night Dances
o Saturday was the big night of the week
o Only night for slaves to enjoy themselves
o Dances or frolics were held on the plantation simply to celebrate Saturday night
o Some slave owners would not allow dances on their plantations, but would allow slaves to travel to the next plantation over to celebrate
Corn Shucking
o Generals set the tempo of the corn shucking by their singing
o Special to find a red ear of corn
Weddings
jumping the broom tradition
Funerals and Burials
o Usually buried within a day, but the funeral would have to wait for a preacher to arrive, sometimes took months
o African influence
• Torch procession to burial
• Each person would put dirt on the grave
Juba
- A free black man, William Henry Lane (Juba)
- Known for his jig dancing
- Wore blackface
- Performed mostly at low class dives to start
- His dancing was a blend of Irish and Afro-American dance tied together by rhythm
- Beat our the famous white dancer, Master John Diamond, in a series of contests
- Became known as the “king of all dancers”
- He joined a minstrel group with 3 white dancers in 1845 and got top billing on the program
- 1848- went to London to perform
- He helped the minstrel show “maintain the integrity of the Negro culture and art”
The Virginia Minstrels
first formal minstrel group
1840s
4 white minstrels
Standard minstrel show format
• 1st part
o entire company sat in a semi-circle
o Endmen were known as Mr. Tambo and Mr. Bones (comics)
o Interlocutor (master of ceremonies) in the center
o Q&A took place between the MC and the comic endment
• 2nd part
o known as the “olio”
o variety of singing, dancing, and speaking acts
• 3rd part
o the afterpiece
o started as a dramatic interpretation of Negro life
o then became a burlesque of popular serious dramas of the time
o Performed by the entire company
Essence
o Came from the black shuffle o Developed into the soft shoe • Grace and elegance emphasized o Started out fast and got slower o George Primrose (Irishman) • Leading performer of the soft shoe • Bill Robinson’s idol
Blackface
standard costume for minstrel show
used to the point that black minstrels wore blackface too, in order to be successful
Clown and Dandy
the two main minstrel characters
