Essay About La Sasa Dance

Jazz and modern dance are two different genres of dance. Jazz dance started in the early 1700’s in Africa and was brought to America through the slave trade. Two pioneers that influenced jazz dance were Jack Cole and Katherine Dunham. Jack Cole was called “the Father of theatrical jazz dance” and is remembered as the prime creator of the jazz heritage. Katherine Dunham was known for her leadership of African American jazz dance and started her own dance company.

The New Orleans Rhythm Kings changed and influenced many people’s lives in the 1920s. They even helped make the Roaring Twenties actually “roar.” Their band helped create the essential cornerstone of the classic Chicago style of jazz ("Tin Roof Blues: The Story of the New Orleans Rhythm King 's"). Not only did they make a difference in music, but in society as a whole. They did when they put out the first “racially mixed” jazz record in 1923 with Jelly Roll Morton, an African American jazz composer and pianist ("Tin Roof Blues: The Story of the New Orleans Rhythm King 's", "Composer Jelly Roll Morton, ragtime to early jazz").

First developed at the end of the 17th century, Bomba flourished along the coast of Puerto Rico where West Africans and their descendants worked the colonial sugar canes (Prfdance). It comes out of the musical traditions brought by enslaved Africans in the 17th century. To them, bomba music was a source of political and spiritual expression. The lyrics conveyed a sense of anger and sadness about their condition, and songs served as a catalyst for rebellions and uprisings. But Bomba also moved them to dance and celebrate, helping them create community and identity (Smithsonian).

According to Julia De Burgos (2013) video ‘Bomba Puerto Rican Dance” Bomba is described as a traditional musical style from Puerto Rico. It was created through mixture of three different cultures, as african and Taino cultures. Its rhythm is created by playing two or more drums. Also, this video states that Bomba used to be played during weddings and those who dance it creates a conversation with their movements. Based on this video, men and women had a lot of differents by dancing Bomba.

Summaries: Salsa: Salsa originates in New York buy has strong Latin American roots especially Cuba; the roots of Salsa depend on the genre’s. The kind of Salsa we know today also has percussive roots in Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean tribal dances. It is most similar to the Cha Cha Cha, which is a traditional Caribbean dance or the Mamba, which is from Cuba. There are many different types of Salsa dancing some of which include Cuban Style, New York Style, and Columbian Style.

Tap dance is a genre of dance when metal plates are fitted to the bottom of heels and when hit on a hard surface, a loud or soft sound, depending on the strength, can be made; these shoes are made to produce audible beats by rhythmically striking the floor. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2018) Tap dance originated in the United States dating back to the 1800’s- 20th century, this style of dance was inspired from the African and Scottish dances; ever since then tap dance has been evolving into a more intricate and individual style of dance. Tap dance has now become a popular expression of dance; it is performed live and is also aired on TV and the internet. Tap Dogs and Hot Shoe Shuffle are a popular example of tap dance due to their distinct style.

These were heightened further because of the Scandal of the Tights. Soon after the Minstrel Shows started and were highly popular around the Southern plantations until the 1890s. American Burlesque adopted the structure of the Minstrel shows and soon evolved into a completely new domain which centered on minimal clothing, suggestive plots, dialogues and dances with sharp humor and short routines. Therefore, it can be derived that the American form of Burlesque was in majority, revolving around exotic performances, nudity and eventually strip

New Orleans contributed largely to the growth of jazz as a dance style; during the beginning of 1930s to the late 1960s, jazz dance was transformed from a communication dance to one that had been theatre based, requiring trained dancers to take part. During this time many carry out the first experiment with the jazz dance style, ultimately influencing it greatly by including both Caribbean and other Latin American dance styles through it. Today jazz is a very recognize dance style all around the world, incorporating and branching out into different genres of its owned, from burlesque to modern

In Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s “Molly” performance, I noticed that he performed it to a rhythm that is very unique to African culture. Many of the instruments that were played in conjunction with his performance in order to enhance his performance were instruments that are very popular in African culture. Joseph’s imitation of the African dances that he witness, prior to Molly asking him to distract the dancers they encountered, was very similar to the original dances that African’s would perform. Prior to being assimilated into American culture, many of the slaves of the past would dance like this at African religious ceremonies. However, these dances became more modified the longer Africans remained in America.

What is Jazz? Jazz originated in the U.S it 's a type of music that has rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, varying degrees of improvisations, and often deliberate of a pitch. Jazz started in the black African American slums of New Orleans at the end of 19th century. Different Types of music such as bebop and swing bands were very popular in the era of 1930’s -1940’s and consisted of many different players such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong which were part of Swing Bands, Charlie Parker was a bebop musician , another one of the most famous bebop players is Dizzy Gillespie.

In the journal entry Changing Values in Cuban Rumba, written by a dancer and anthropologist Yvonne Payne Daniel, explains the popular dance Rumba that originated from Cuba. I agree with Daniel’s statement that there no is racism in Cuba when illustrating Rumba as national dance. Rumba is a rhythmic dance with African and Spanish elements. In the journal entry Daniel states that Rumba is a dance of lower class black-skinned Cubans in the nineteenth century. Daniel explains that Rumba historically started as people using closets, tabletops and spoons to create their songs.

The Importance of “American Bandstand” on African American Culture “We 're goin ' hoppin ', we 're goin ' hoppin ' today, where things are poppin ' the Philadelphia way, we 're gonna drop in on all the music they play, on the bandstand!” These are the lyrics to “Bandstand Boogie,” written by Barry Manilow for ABC’s long running dance show American Bandstand. Barry Manilow’s version of “Bandstand Boogie” was American Bandstand’s opening and closing theme song from 1977 until its last show on ABC in 1987. (Manilow, Album.)

Bachata is a popular guitar music that originated from the Dominican Republic. In the Article Bachata: The soulful music, the slow dance explains that while bachata is mainly based on bolero rhythm. This genre traditionally includes other kinds of music such as vals, merengue and ranchera. In 1986 Bachata was an exclusive type of music for maids and taxi drivers. It wasn’t until musicians with big names in the music industry such as Juan Luis Guerra and Anthony Santos that made more appealing to women.

The obvious difference in post war american youth was apparent in society as music culture was beginning to change. One of the biggest

Traditional Mexican music was largely defined by a feeling of national identity that was incorporated into Mariachi music after the Mexican Revolution” (Quintana). There is a lot of complication to Latin Music and it is has many layers of Latin music influencing American culture. Tejano music was introduced in the mid-nineteen century, primarily because Hispanics migrated from Spain or Mexico. They renovated the music by adding an accordion. According to the Texas Almanac Tejano music, “most significant innovation, however, was the introduction of the diatonic button accordion by German and Czech immigrants.