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Black Dance History

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B. Black Dance and Black Ballet As the topic of this research is about Non-White or Coloured Skin (CS) dancers in classical ballet companies, it is important to mention the history of what is called the ‘Black Dance’ and more specifically ‘Black Ballet’. Meanwhile a lot is known and written about the origins and the history of the ballet in Europe, very few is investigated and written about the history of black ballet. Some essays and books about black contemporary dance in America can be found, such as the work of Brenda Dixon Gottschild about Joan Myers Brown (2011), but besides autobiographies, very few academic investigations have been done about the history of Black Ballet. During talks about the evolution of Black Dance mostly is referred …show more content…

Before this epoch, the indigenous people and the slaves brought to the Americas in the 17th century, danced to their own music, but very little is known about it. After the American Civil War people from the Caribbean and the south of the United States began to move to the big cities in the North. In New York many settled in the Harlem District. They brought with them their own music and cultural traditions. Dances as Charleston and Lindyhop became very popular among blacks as well as whites and the influence of what is called this ‘Harlem Renaissance’ spread even into Europe. Florence Mills for example made tap dance popular in London and Josephine Baker became a huge star in Paris with her show “The Revue …show more content…

For example, Buddy Bradley collaborated in 1932 with Frederick Ashton on a ballet where he had to teach the famous Russian Ballerina Alicia Markova how to move her hips as a snake by bending her knees, a very difficult technique for a classical trained ballerina. Ballet in the United States began as a devotion to ballet as it was seen across the ocean. Katherine Dunham, who believed that black dance should have the same status as the white European tradition, laid together with Pearl Primus the foundation of the modern black dance, wherein often the art form is used to express the social and political constraints on

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