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LYNNE FAUL EY EMERY \Vith a Foreword by Katherine Dunham BLACK DANCE From 1619 to Today Second, Revised Edition LYNNE FAULEY EMERY New Chapter by Dr. Brenda Dixon-Stowell Foreword by Katherine Dunham SS A Dance Horizons Book PRINCETON BOOK COMPANY, PUBLISHERS PRINCETON, NJ Copyright © 1972 by Lynne Fauley Emery Copyright © 1988 by Princeton Book Company, Publishers All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission of the pub- lisher. A Dance Horizons Book Princeton Book Company, Publishers POB 57 Pennington, NJ 08534 LC# 88-61031 ISBN 0-916622-61-4 Cover Design by Design and Illustration Cover Photograph: “Revelations” by the Alvin Ailey Dance Com- pany; Photo by Bill Hilton Editorial Supervisor: Richard Carlin Printed in the United States of America MINSTREL MAN Because my mouth Is wide with laughter And my throat Is deep with song, You do not think I suffer after I have held my pain So long? Because my mouth Is wide with laughter You do not hear My inner cry? Because my feet Are gay with dancing, You do not know I die? — LANGSTON HUGHES The Dream Keeper From THE DREAM KEEPER AND OTHER POEMS, by Langston Hughes. Copyright 1932 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and renewed 1960 by Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. CONTENTS Foreword by Katherine Dunham vii Preface ix 1 The Slave Trade l 2 Black Dance of the Caribbean, 1518-1900 15 3 Dance on the Plantations 80 4 Dance in the North, on the Levee, and in New Orleans 139 5 Jim Crow and Juba 179 6 From Minstrelsy to “Darktown Follies’ 203 7 From Dance Hall to Theatre 219 8 Concert Dance Pioneers: 1920-1950 24] 9 Concert Dance: 1950—Today 272 10 Popular Dance in the Twentieth Century 339 Bibliography 367 Index 391 FORE W ©) R D Until the publication of Lynne Emery's fascinating book, Black Dance in the United States, there has been in this country no comprehensive study of the dance forms of people of African origin. Considerable original material exists: French, Portuguese, English, Spanish and Amer- ican sailors, doctors, tourists, slave owners, and priests over the past four hundred years have described, often in tantalizing detail, what they have seen in Africa, the West Indies, and the Americas. But in this country little has been published beyond occasional articles and treatises, and these have only hinted at the profusion of material available. Now Lynne Emery, a social scientist and historian with a thorough knowledge of dance, has written the first truly comprehensive book on black dance. The scope and interest of her work are enormous. She analyzes the entire complex of black dance, traces its origins, and describes with remarkable lucidity and conciseness its social meaning in the areas where it has been performed. Her generous quotations from long unavailable source material are fascinating in themselves, and her extensive bibliography alone merits publication for its contribution to the study of black culture. Aside from her incomparable research effort, one of Mrs. Emery’s most important contributions is her analysis of the place of dance as a fundamental element of African aesthetic expression, impossible to separate from African music, poetry, and oral literature. There is no doubt that, in Mrs. Emery’s phrase, the heart and soul of Africa is, in effect, a gigantic drum, and that the rhythms of its dance are basic to social cohesion, ritual obser- vance, the maintenance of tradition, preparation for war, auto- hypnosis, the expression of grief and joy, and the satisfaction of play and sexual selection instincts. Mrs. Emery cites many exam- ples of all of these functions. Early in the book she makes the point that slaves both aboard ship and on plantations were often forced under the lash to dance “for reasons of health” and to Vill give the impression of well-being and contentment. On the other hand, the dance by and large has been an instrument of black survival under the most depressing economic and social circumstances, and continues to be so. In the latter half of the book Mrs. Emery has brought to life many pioneering artists now almost unknown or long forgotten. It is refreshing to find the names of Asadata Dafora Horton, Noble Sissle, and Eubie Blake, in addition to the more familiar Florence Mills and Josephine Baker, to name but a few. She deals in detail with the Negro renaissance of the forties and fifties, and exten- sively with those dancers and teachers of today who have already achieved regional, national, and international recognition. In these times it may be surprising to many that Mrs. Emery is not black. She has written, however with both care and dignity, and without exploiting the material she has uncovered for effect in the manner rather commonly practiced by white chroniclers of black fact. Since Mrs. Emery has quoted so liberally from my own book Dances of Haiti,1 I want to congratulate her for her singular ap- preciation of that pioneering work. Indeed, she has taken over where I left off. Of course her book will serve as a ready and authoritative reference for dancers. anthropologists, and students of black studies, but it is so rich in human interest and so clearly organized that it should fascinate a far broader public. By the finish of the book we are acquainted not only with the history of black dance, but we also know much more about the enslaved and the enslavers, the psychology of colonialism, and the nature of those who have danced their way out of poverty and racial prejudice into the opera houses and concert halls of the world. Katherine Dunham, Director Performing Arts Training Center Southern Illinois University East St. Louis, Illinois 62201 ‘Dunham, Katherine, Dances of Haiti: An Analysis of Their Form and Func- tion. Mexico: Bellas Artes, 1946; and Paris: Fasquell, 1948. Not published in the United States. V1ll