Black American Popular Dance: Selected Reading List
I think what kinds of dances we teach, and how we teach them, is important. I teach forms and techniques, that, like me, are both Inside and Outside of the dominant norms of the dance industry. I’m interested in lineage, source, and midrash, the Jewish practice of critical commentary on and around a historical text.
In the history classroom, the dance studio, and on stage, I prioritize teaching skills and strategies to help students grow as people, dancers, and community members. My work is powered by my continuous learning about the social history behind forms of dance and seeking to uplift the intersection of history, identity, and performance. I give young dancers and thinkers tools to identify cultural hegemonies/power structures and the means to joyfully express themselves outside of the status quo.
My focus on the diasporic, the folk, the vernacular, the improvised, and the collective, is emboldened by an academic and artistic study of the nation, the classical, the canon, and the codified. Our pedagogy is just as critical as our content as a technology of power.
Moreover, as both a clown and a jazz dancer, I quite literally teach dancers to talk; to speak up, to sing together, and to scat their own songs. I teach not only in lines, but in circles, processions, and partnerships, to support various modes of learning in the studio and in the classroom.
Collaborative dance-making with young people — undergraduates or high schoolers — can be transformative and empowering for the participants and the audience. I care about the cultural capital (stories, references, friendships) young people carry. I am passionate about using this material in an environment of consent and creativity to express something new, and usually, quite hilarious and profound.
Photos courtesy of Concord Academy (Cole +Kiera Photography) and California Institute of the Arts.
Lily practices & teaches Flying Low & Passing Through, the joyful, collective, contemporary floorwork + improvisation methods of David Zambrano.
I teach 20th century American History through the story of Black American Popular Dance. Conversely, I teach the stories of American Popular Dance as the history of race, nation, and gender in the US and the Atlantic at large. My teaching of this history is rooted in Jazz. For more information about my training and lineages in Black American Popular Dance see ‘About.’
Vernacular Jazz aka Solo Jazz aka Authentic Jazz aka African American Vernacular Jazz aka Jazz Roots, refers to Black vernacular dances styles ranging from Cake Walk and Charleston through to Be-bop and early rock and roll. Unlike Broadway Jazz, it has limited influences from ballet. It sometimes, but not always, indicates dancing without a partner (rather than dancing with a partner, like Lindy Hop). Solo Jazz can be improvised or choreographed. It ranges from sly and slinky to aerobic and goofy.
Lindy Hop was is a vernacular jazz dance created by working class Afro-American people in Harlem in the 1930's. Lindy Hop, variously known as swing dance or even “the Jitterbug” is danced with a partner to classic big band music, swampy New Orleans jazz, or even Motown.
I started Lindy Hopping in 2009 in Baltimore. I was invited to train with Gaurdian Baltimore. After attending many swing dance events and festivals all over the world, including Stompology, Herrang, ILHC, and more I created Ragtag Empire with Heather Houde in 2017, hosting parties, teach classes, and sharing history. I handed Ragtag Empire off to the next generation in 2023.
My teaching, as needed, branches into the dances associated with Funk (Locking), Disco (Waacking/Punking) and can draws connections to House, Hip Hop, and Breaking.
photo credits: Jerry Almonte (color) Tyler Sakil (black and white)
How To Make A Dance In America ← now online!
is a ‘zine I made (and re-made) to help folks with the basics of making and producing dance independently. You don’t need to wait for the grant, or the venue, or the perfect time.
You may be wondering:
What is the difference between a DMX & an XLR cable? How do I budget and make a rehearsal schedule for my independently produced dance show?
Or generally: Is it possible to be a DIY dance maker?
I got you.
This ‘zine came out of over a decade of producing my own dances in whatever weird, wonderful space I could get my hands on in Baltimore and Philly, 2008-2021. There wasn’t really funding, and/or I wasn’t willing to wait for it or confine my visions to fit within the available presenting platforms. For me, this is still the most magical kind of performance.
Shout out to Effervescent Collective and Urban Movement Arts, the grassroots organizations where I was able to develop and share my DIY skills
Friends at the Voxel Theater in Baltimore helped me turn it into a digital resource.
Every once in a while I re-print a hardcopy batch of the 'zine.
(If you ask nice I might send you a PDF to print it as a booklet at home.)
