Jazz Dance History in America

as researched by Bob Boross

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ROOTS OF AMERICAN VERNCULAR DANCE

The American slave trade began in 1619 with the arrival of Dutch trading ships carrying a cargo of Africans to Virginia. However, Africans were imported as slaves to the West Indies as early as 1518. The retention of African culture by those in slavery was stronger in the West Indies than in America, as the Spanish and French rulers adhered to the more lenient view of dancing taken by the Catholic church. In America, the Protestant church strongly disapproved of dance of any kind. Therefore, dances that occured in the West Indies retained more of the African dance structure than did those of America. These dances can be classified as recreational or sacred. An example of a recreational dance is the Calenda. Accompanied by a rhythmic drum beat, a line of males would face a line of females and one dancer from each line would advance toward each other and jump and strike thighs in mid-air. Also danced was the Chica - where a female would perform an undulating and shimmering motion of the torso with feet planted firmly, waving a kerchief over her head, while a male performed similar movements in a vigorous fashion circling around the female. The Juba was a competitive dance where opponents would outdo each other in feats of skill, sometimes while balancing a cup of water on the head.

Sacred dances were based on the worship of religious gods. The goal of the dance was for the dancer to become enveloped, or "possessed," by the god so that it would speak through the dancer. Through the combined application of chanting, drumming, and dance, the dancer entered a world of the supernatural and experienced the superhuman traits of the gods. In this state the dancer would command strength and abilities far beyond that capable in a non-possessed state. Two examples are voodoo dances and Shango dances. Another type of sacred dance was performed by "shouters," where the dancers would sing, clap, and move in a circular fashion around a room until the desired state of possession was evoked. Traces of the African religious practice of possession, or voluntarily disengaging from reality through the application of the combined effects of music and dance, can be detected in the appeal of some forms of jazz dance.

In America, the dance movement of Africa was restrained mainly by two factors - the attitude of the Protestant church towards dancing as being immoral, and the restricted use of the primary African instrument (the drum). The church felt that dancing was sinful and any stimulation of the senses was to be avoided. This included any type of spontaneous dance for joy that was part of the African-American expression. Drumming was banned in 1739 following the Cato Conspiracy. This was an insurrection by slaves that was mounted with the aid of messages transmitted by drum signals. White plantation owners responded by banning all drumming, and it had the secondary effect of forcing slaves to search for other percussion options to accompany their dancing. The substitute instruments included quills (an assortment of pipes of different pitches), banjos, clapping hands and stamping feet, and the fiddle (violin).