The Black Dancing Body: A Geography from Coon to Cool

by Brenda Dixon Gottschild

Watching contemporary American dance is a unique and electrifying experience. Swept along with the dancers, one wonders how the unorthodox movement and unexpected tempo came about. To provide at least one answer to this question, Brenda Dixon Gottschild charts a "geography" that maps a unique, yet startlingly ubiquitous, region of influence in the history of American the black dancing body. The author invites the reader on a journey of sorts and says, "The black dancing body (a fiction based on reality, a fact based upon illusion) has infiltrated and informed the shapes and changes of the American dancing body." Using interviews with black, white, and brown dance practitioners as well as performance analysis and personal recollections of her own life in the world of dance, Brenda Dixon Gottschild charts the endeavors, ordeals, and triumphs of "black" dance and dancers by exposing perceptions, images, and assumptions, past and present. In her journey to discover the contours and importance of the black dancing body, the author spoke to some of the greatest dancers and choreographers of our time - Fernando Bujones, Trisha Brown, Garth Fagan, Bill T. Jones, Ralph Lemon, Meredith Monk, Merián Soto, Doug Elkins, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and a cadre of their esteemed colleagues. The "embattled territories" of the black dancing body are probed chapter by feet, buttocks, hair, skin color. The whole of the black dancing body is "re-membered" in the final chapters on soul and spirit. The Black Dancing Body is a key to the ineffable rhythms and movement of dance in America.
(20030721)

Genres: Race, Nonfiction, Cultural Studies

Hardcover

First published October 6, 2003

Reviews

[Kimber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic exploration of how the dance world deals with race.

[ABAgail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly enjoyed this book and the manner in which the author presented the information. It's amazing how so much has changed, yet stayed the same.

[Oyceter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good exploration of racism in the field of modern dance. Dixon Gottschild explores what she terms the Europeanist and the Africanist dance traditions, contrasting Europeanist focus on uprightness and Africanist focus on different body parts doing different things.

She generally avoids cultural monoliths and notes multiple times that Europeanist and Africanist dance are cultures that can be learned by black or white bodies. I also liked how she looks at how parts of the black body have been characterized throughout history, from hair to butt to feet, and her look at various dances that reclaim these body parts.

I was a little more doubtful of the soul/spirit section, which verges a little on cultural monolith for me, but that may be because I have no background knowledge. It was also difficult because it's so hard to describe soul/spirit in dance (or music, as it were); some of my problems may stem from not being able to see the dance that she's describing. I also found the soul/spirit section to be disappointingly Christian-centric, though Dixon Gottschild does put it a bit in context by mentioned slavery and forced conversation.

All in all, highly recommended. I'm just sad it doesn't come with a DVD, but that's not the book's fault at all.

Full review: http://oyceter.livejournal.com/659440...

[Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gottschild’s approach to her subject matter can be analogous to turning on the microphone while someone is whispering. She is bold with exposing truth. Her suppositions are substantiated by historical research, personal experiences, and expert testimonies. Gottschild takes an in depth look beyond the aestheticisms of the black dancing body, but also the Africanist influences on most contemporary American dance. Her time-geographical journey travels from the pride of the African coast to the staged denigration of minstrel slapstick movement. It encompasses the assimilation of African culture in contemporary American dance to the point of homogeny.

[Lisa Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will change the way you view dance. Gottschild is an amazing dance artist and academic. Her insights into what it means to be a black dancing body are astounding! Every dancer should read this book!!

[Stephanie]

Started off great! Then it washed away in a hurricane. Maybe I'll finish it someday...

[sarah kate]

read parts for dance history research paper

[Lee Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was really interesting and gave a wonderful perspective/compare and contrast to Africanist dance and movement forms vs. Europeanist. It was helpful for me, as I am starting to write more about dance, but sometimes Gottschild's style got in the way. She seemed overly apologetic or defensive when speaking about various issues in the dance community. I wondered who her intended audience was, as I often felt like she was providing explanation for things that did not require it "in line." After I was able to get over her writing "ticks" and "idiosyncrasies," I found the book enjoyable and enlightening.