Historical/cultural Dance analysis

Historical/cultural Dance analysis

Introduction

Dance has always been consider as an expression of rhythmic movement that work as an intensified sense of life, which basically arise from the inner perception whose function is to stimulates both mind and the body. It has been witnessed that people all around the world expressed and shared their feelings through the dance, since the origin of the human life on this planet. It is believed that dance is a universal language with no barriers. The people who took dance seriously knows that when dance transformed from simple emotional expression to a specific design and an organized pattern introduced into it with the specific rhythm, gestures, dynamics and the steps, than the dance is said to be a specific dance. As the specific dance is decided than the next step is gather people and makes it as a group and when all the people in a particular group started practicing that dance than it said to be the dance form. It is not an easy task to develop the dance forms and it takes centuries to learn and to form any dance form because mainly the dance reflects the customs of the particular society.

Therefore, in this paper, the author tried to present evidence for the readers about the African American Dance culture after the 1900. In this regard, the author discussed the historical context of the dance and what dance practices were evolved in the African American Dance. The focus is to find the historical moments on which the particular dance foundation was laid. Similarly, the political, social and racial factors also considered for the dancing style (Hazzard-Gordon, 2010).

In the second half of the paper, the other important thing that is discussed is the changes in the dance. Change in a sense that how dance changed as per the external or internal pressures, whether because of the new world, new venues or because of the new social needs that changed the structure and meanings of dance.

Historical Context

African American dance culture has been developed among the Black American communities in the everyday spaces rather than the studios, dancing schools or organizations. The basis of these dances was laid on folk and mostly times the social dance gatherings. The African Black Americans considering the dance performance as complementary status, however, yet they value the improvisation and did this with complete focus.

The African Americans used dance to celebrate their special occasions on the daily basis, for instance occasions like birth, birth and other daily events in the family or community. African Blacks when they were salves they used to dance to remain close to their culture. However, the owners banned the dance because in the dance moves, the African Americans lift their feet and also they adopted the shuffling movements by waving their hands (Stearns & Stearns, 1968).

Minstrel Shows

For the first time, minstrel shows were introduced and the African American dance was introduced to the white Americans on a large ...