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.
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In the black vernacular, mimicry, musicality, expressiveness, and performing for the group offer built-in learning and teaching tools. I use them to teach vernacular jazz. These same tools are central to how I teach Flying Low & Passing Through, in alignment with the teaching methods of the technique originator David Zambrano, with whom I have trained extensively. I teach Zambrano’s work not as a disciple, but rather as a critical enthusiast.
- Mimicry or ‘following’ teaches listening and one-ups-man-ship, without relying on spoken language. Mimicry, especially in relationship to rhythm and style, can become a tool for collectivity.
- Scatting and singing teach how to map movement into a groove. They are aural tools for self-evaluation without a mirror. Access to the voice facilitates access to one's whole body.
- Each-One-Teach-One: Students work peer to peer to troubleshoot material together. Each-one-teach-one also embodies pedagogical responsibility as each student becomes responsible for knowing how to transmit the material to another.
- Center of Attention: Encircling a student with the full class’ attention to witness a student perform material, or articulate a question. The dancer performing for the group is practicing performance under pressure, like in a jam/cypher, as well as the skill of incorporating feedback on the spot. This practice normalizes struggling to ‘get it.’ While it can be scary at first, it becomes a powerful learning opportunity and builds more compassionate and articulate dancers and teachers.
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.
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 which encouraged my anthropological thinking about social dance forms in the 21st century. 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. We host parties, teach classes, and share history. Today, Ragtag works is a sub-program of Urban Movemenet Arts, as well as independently producing events and parties.
My academic research interests are focused on jazz in the vaudeville era, particularly Ida Forsyne as well as the influence of jazz on the advent of the ballroom dance industry and ‘Modern’ dance.
www.ragtagempire.com
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.)
