ISSUE 18 2010

www.giantfood.com

Cover Photo: Photo of BREAKDANCING; November 1982 (Photo by David Corio/Redferns)

3 4 8EARLY DANCE

FORMS19th & 20th

CENTURIESCURRENT

TRENDS

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At GIANT, we are committed to being an organization

that fosters cultural values of all ethnicities. Diversity is

integral to who we are and how we operate as a company.

We can best deliver on our pledge to make a difference in

our customers’ and associates lives every day by

integrating diversity into our business initiatives.

We have a long history of celebrating Black History

Month, this year we will be celebrating this month long

observance by recognizing the history of dance and the

role it has played within the African American culture.

Please join us in celebrating the evolution of African

American dance and the impact that it has had on

dance as we know it today.

AFRICAN AMERICAN DANCEDance has always been an integral part of daily life in Africa. In the

Americas, dance played an important role in helping enslaved Africans

maintain a connection with their homeland and keep their cultural

traditions alive. As they had done before enslavement, Africans

danced for special occasions, such as a birth or a marriage, or

simply as a part of their daily activities. And dance helped affirm

life and the possibility of a better future.

African Americans sang and danced in the places where they worked

as slaves, and as they converted to the religions of the Americas, they

incorporated these traditions into their practice of these religions. Many

North American slave owners, in adhering to strict Protestant tenets,

barred Africans from most forms of dancing. Africans found ways of

getting around the prohibitions of the slavemasters, however. For

example, since lifting the feet was considered dancing, many

dances included foot shuffling and hip and torso movement.

Dances dominant through the 18th century included the ring shout or

ring dance, the calenda, the chica, and the juba. The ring shout

originated in West African religious ceremonies, and was performed by

blacks throughout the Eastern and Southern United States as a part of

Protestant worship. It was danced by a circle of people who shuffled

and stomped their feet and swayed their hips. The calenda and the

chica were sensual mating dances; partners began these dances at a

distance from each other and gradually moved closer and closer.

The jiglike juba, a competitive dance in which dancers challenged one

another to demonstrate

their agility and rhythmic

abilities, was performed

throughout the American

South and the Caribbean. R

UNITED STATES - DECEMBER 11: New freed

from slavery, a group of African Americans

dance during a wedding celebration.

(Photo by Mansell/Mansell/Time & Life

Pictures/Getty Images)

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The dances of the plantation moved onto the stage in the 1800s.

Minstrel Shows, a popular form of entertainment that included music

and dance as well as theatrical skits, introduced black dance to large

audiences during the 1800s. These shows originated in the late

1700s and early 1800s from parodies of blacks by whites and from

performances by blacks in city streets. As popular entertainment,

they were performed by both blacks and whites.

The dancing in minstrel shows derived from the foot-shuffling dances

of plantation life. Initially, blacks appeared as caricatures and were

often the target of ridicule, but they drew from their cultural

traditions even as they made fun of themselves. In 1891

The Creole Show, a revue staged on Broadway in

New York City, brought minstrel dance styles, as well

as other plantation dances, to a wide audience.

The Creole Show and similar revues introduced the first dance

created by blacks to become popular with the white population:

the cakewalk. This couples dance had been performed for

decades by blacks on plantations to celebrate harvests, and

it eventually turned into a competitive dance for which the

best couple was awarded a cake.

Left: 1901: African-American dancers

perform the Cakewalk at the Pan Am

Expo in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by

Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Right: Photo of TWIST and Chubby

Checker; Posed studio portrait of

Chubby Checker doing the Twist

(Photo by RB/Redferns)

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Other black-influenced dance trends

that spread to the white population

followed: the Charleston in the 1920s,

the Lindy Hop and the Jitterbug

in the 1930s and 1940s, and the

Twist in the 1960s.

Above: Leon James & Willa Mae

Ricker demonstrating a step

of The Lindy Hop. (Photo

by Gjon Mili//Time Life

Pictures/Getty Images)

Continued…

The 1920s and the 1930s were

an especially fruitful time for black

dance in the United States.

Blacks migrated to urban areas

in large numbers after World War I

ended in 1918. This migration,

along with the birth of various

black pride movements, led to

a flourishing of black culture,

especially in the Harlem

neighborhood of New York City.

During this period, which came

to be known as the Harlem

Renaissance, African American

developments in dance were

accompanied by similar

innovations in theater, music,

literature, and other arts.

Black musical theater, derived

from minstrel shows, continued

to popularize and legitimize black

dance traditions and black

performers, as it had in the 19th

century. Shuffle Along (1921), a

landmark Broadway show created

by blacks and with an all-black

cast, was immensely popular with

white audiences. In the

chorus line was

Josephine Baker,

who eventually

won fame and

adoration in

Paris, France,

performing dances

that reflected her African

American heritage. Many other

all-black shows, including Runnin’

Wild (1923), Chocolate Dandies

(1924), and Blackbirds of 1928

(1928), also played to

enthusiastic American

audiences in the 1920s

and 1930s.

Left: Nightclub singer Josephine Baker, 435, singing Brazilian natives’

song on stage at the Strand movie theater during her US tour.

(Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Right: 1935: Full-length image of American tap dancer and actor

Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson (1878 - 1949) dancing on a set of

wooden steps in director Walter Lang's film, ‘Hooray for Love.’

He stands on the top step, holding his hat and kicking one leg.

(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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A dance style initiated by blacks

that gained fame in the early 20th

century was tap dance, which

combined elements of African

influenced shuffle dances, English

clog dancing, and Irish jigs. Also

during the 1930s and 1940s,

blacks moved into ballet and

modern dance, dance forms

previously created and

performed by whites alone.

The Lester Horton Dance Theater,

founded in 1932, was the first

racially integrated dance troupe in

America. One of the major dancers

was Alvin Ailey, who served as the

group’s director from 1953 to

1954. Ailey left in 1958 to form his

own modern-dance company, the

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Other prominent black choreogra-

phers include Donald McKayle,

Debbie Allen, Talley Beatty, Garth

Fagan, Bill T. Jones, and Joel Hall.

29th August 1968:

American dancer and

choreographer Alvin

Ailey (right) performs

on stage with his

company, the Alvin

Ailey American

Dance Theater, at

the Edinburgh Festival.

(Photo by Central

Press/Getty Images)

R

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The past 20 years in African American dance have been rich in

innovations as well as connections with the past. The definition of

dance has broadened beyond ballet, modern, and jazz. Popular

and social dances, including the urban black dance forms of break

dancing and hip-hop, have been recognized for their artistry and

expressiveness. All-female companies such as Urban Bush

Women have been formed, as has a company devoted exclusively

to hip-hop dance, The Pure Movement Dance Company.

99

WASHINGTON: Alvin Ailey

American Dance Theatre

perform during ‘A Celebration

of America’ by Jazz at

Lincoln Center and

The Rockefeller Foundation

at The John F Kennedy

Center for the Performing

Arts January 19, 2009

in Washington, DC.

(Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty

Images for Jazz at

Lincoln Center)

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Dance created and performed by

African Americans has become a

permanent part of American dance.

Contemporary dance companies

founded by blacks tour both nationally

and internationally. The diversity of

dance styles and genres is represented

by such groups as Alvin Ailey American

Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem,

Garth Fagan’s Bucket Dance Theater,

Philadelphia Dance Company, The Cleo

Parker Robinson Dance Company,

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company,

Kariamu & Company, and Forces of

Nature Dance Theatre.

Many African American dance companies

have specialized in reconstructing traditional African dances, keeping

these dance forms alive in America. They have influenced a generation

of choreographers who blend African styles with movements from

modern and popular dance. These groups include the African American

Dance Ensemble; KanKouran West African Dance Company; Ko-Thi

Dance Company; Dinizulu and His African Dancers, Drummers, and

Singers; and Muntu Dance Theater.

Preformers from the Ezibu Muntu Dance

Company dance during a Kwanzaa celebration

26 December 2004 at the Lincoln Theater in

Washington. Celebrated between 26

December and 01 January, AFP

PHOTO/Brendan SMIALOWSKI (Photo credit

should read BRENDAN

SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

R“African American Dance,” Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2009 http://encarta.msn.com ©

1997-2009 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Continued…

A breakdancer in a

New York subway

station doing a

handstand, while

a crowd of

spectators look

on, Manhattan,

NY, USA

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