The Black Dancing Body: a Geography from Coon to Cool.The Black Dancing Body: A Geography from Coon coon: see raccoon. to Cool By Brenda Dixon Gottschild. New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Palgrave MacMillan, 2003. 332 pages, illustrations, Cloth, $29.95 As implied by Brenda Dixon Gottschild's full title, the black dancing body is a territory with rich and controversial history and culture. Dixon Gottschild, our intrepid explorer, takes a sometimes exhilarating, sometimes dizzying zigzag path through numerous sampled interviews (Bill T. Jones, Marlies Yearby, Fernando Bujones Fernando Bujones (March 9, 1955 – November 10, 2005) was a Cuban-American ballet dancer. Born in Miami, Florida to Cuban parents, Bujones is regarded as one of the finest male dancers of the 20th century and hailed as the greatest American male dancer of his generation. , Dong Elkins, Brenda Bufalino Brenda Bufalino is an artist of the tap dance world. In a career spanning several decades, she has worked with many influential artists. Bufalino founded the American Tap Dance Foundation. External links
tr.v. ex·alt·ed, ex·alt·ing, ex·alts 1. To raise in rank, character, or status; elevate: exalted the shepherd to the rank of grand vizier. 2. those stereotypes and legitimate features of blackness that white society both resists and desires. It's telling that some black dance artists expressed caution about discussing some of the topics Dixon Gottschild broaches in her interviews. Their economic vulnerability--as dancers, as artists, as people of color Noun 1. people of color - a race with skin pigmentation different from the white race (especially Blacks) people of colour, colour, color race - people who are believed to belong to the same genetic stock; "some biologists doubt that there are important in a society whose institutions privilege those who are affluent and white--cannot be underestimated, However, this book's value lies in the author's curiosity and enthusiastic determination to go all the way there: Let's talk about what we're really thinking when we watch a performer of another race or what we might say to someone of our own race but hesitate to reveal in public. (An experiment: What thoughts or images come to mind when you hear that Josephine Baker studied with Balanchine in the 1920s?) Let's talk about how the complex, troubled history of race in America complicates (and, sadly, is still mirrored by) our professional prospects and working relationships within the dance world. Some readers may believe that the dance community has no race issue to examine and that we, like the so-called colorblind col·or·blind or col·or-blind adj. Partially or totally unable to distinguish certain colors. America, have moved on. But Dixon Gottschild's happiest readers will share her adventurousness, her inclination to listen deeply and learn, and her honesty. This is not a linear, academic study but a living, breathing crazy quilt. Her questions are far from resolved and the conversation does not--must not--stop with page 301. The best use of this book is as a stimulus for free-ranging, ongoing discussion.--EVA YAA ASANTEWAA |
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