Test 1 Flashcards
6 basic characteristics of African dance
• Flat-footed, favors gliding, dragging, or shuffling steps
• Performed from a crouch, knees flexed and body bent at the waist
• Generally imitate animals in realistic detail
• Places importance on improvisation which allows for freedom of individual expression
• Centrifugal, exploding outward from the hips
o The leg moves from the hip instead of the knee, the arm from the shoulder
• Swinging quality
Slave journey to the New World
• Procurement/acquiring of cargo o 1 month- a year o enticed slaves with dancing o abducted individually or in pairs o captured as POW and acquired through “dealers” • The Middle Passage o 15 days – 4 months o disease and malnutrition o roughly half of the slaves would be lost on the journey o shaved heads to prevent lice o forced to eat whatever was on hand o temporary blindness was common- developed from scurvy • Landing and disposal of slaves
Stono Insurrection
- Also referred to as the Cato conspiracy
- 1739 Stono plantation
- Slaves killed two guards, stole arms and ammunition, and escaped to Florida. “They marched to the beating of two drums and killed all whites that interfered.”
- Drums caused many slaves to gather together
- Lead to the banning of drums
- Some drums did survive, mostly in the Georgia costal islands and in Louisiana
Instruments used by slaves
• Tambourines made from cowhides stretched over cheese boxes
• Cow bones that could be knocked together to keep time
• Broom-straws on fiddle strings
• The human body
• Banjar or banjo
• Fiddle
• Pots and pans beaten as drums
• Quills/reeds
• Slave orchestras played for white owners on fiddle and tambourine
• Slave dances used banjo, fiddle, quills, tambourine, bones
o Rarely did they use drums, pots, or pans
o Almost always used voices and clapping
Buck, Buck, and Wing
o “It went two steps to the right, two steps to the left. The womens shake their skirts and the mens dance round them”
o Possibly danced by only men
o More authentic dance of the slave culture
o Buck and wing was later seen in minstrel shows
Pigeon Wing
o Performed over a large geographical area
o Slapping arms and legs and moving neck like a bird’
o More authentic dance of the slave culture
Jig
o Used in contests where slaves of one owner would compete against the slaves of another owner
o Would sometime use a bucket of water on the head
o Developed as an imitation of white culture
Cake Walk
o Common festival dance in Virginia
o Contest dance, winner sometimes won a cake
• when done for whites, the mistress of the big house would make a cake
• when done for other slaves, cornmeal cake
o Would sometimes use a bucket of water on the head
o Developed as an imitation of white culture
o A couple’s dance
o Was first known as the “chalk line walk”
Ring Shout
o One of the more primitive dances
o Performed in a ring
o Comparable to the dance done in the West Indies by the Congo Negros
o Sometimes had a spiritual element to it
• Buzzard Lope (animal dances)
Buzzard Lope
o Imitated buzzards that circled dead cows
Animal Dances
o Turkey Trot o Snake Hip o Fish Tail o Fish Bone o Camel Walk
Water Dances
o Water was carried on the head as a part of the dance and was usually used as a method of determining a winner in a contest
o “Set the Floor”
Juba Dance
o Originally dajuba- a sacred dance
o Distinguished by the patting that accompanied it
o “Patting Juba”- stamping, clapping, and slapping of arms, chest, and thighs, which appeared extensively when drums were prohibited
o a competitive dance of skill
o survives today as the hambone
Quadrilles, Cotillions, Reels
o Mostly of the circle and hand-clapping type, but were strongly influenced by the English Square Dance and the French Quadrille
o Sometimes competitive- house slaves vs. field slaves
o Turned into figure dances
o Cotillions- call and response
Saturday Night Dances
o Saturday was the big night of the week
o Only night for slaves to enjoy themselves
o Dances or frolics were held on the plantation simply to celebrate Saturday night
o Some slave owners would not allow dances on their plantations, but would allow slaves to travel to the next plantation over to celebrate
Corn Shucking
o Generals set the tempo of the corn shucking by their singing
o Special to find a red ear of corn
Weddings
jumping the broom tradition
Funerals and Burials
o Usually buried within a day, but the funeral would have to wait for a preacher to arrive, sometimes took months
o African influence
• Torch procession to burial
• Each person would put dirt on the grave
Juba
- A free black man, William Henry Lane (Juba)
- Known for his jig dancing
- Wore blackface
- Performed mostly at low class dives to start
- His dancing was a blend of Irish and Afro-American dance tied together by rhythm
- Beat our the famous white dancer, Master John Diamond, in a series of contests
- Became known as the “king of all dancers”
- He joined a minstrel group with 3 white dancers in 1845 and got top billing on the program
- 1848- went to London to perform
- He helped the minstrel show “maintain the integrity of the Negro culture and art”
The Virginia Minstrels
first formal minstrel group
1840s
4 white minstrels
Standard minstrel show format
• 1st part
o entire company sat in a semi-circle
o Endmen were known as Mr. Tambo and Mr. Bones (comics)
o Interlocutor (master of ceremonies) in the center
o Q&A took place between the MC and the comic endment
• 2nd part
o known as the “olio”
o variety of singing, dancing, and speaking acts
• 3rd part
o the afterpiece
o started as a dramatic interpretation of Negro life
o then became a burlesque of popular serious dramas of the time
o Performed by the entire company
Essence
o Came from the black shuffle o Developed into the soft shoe • Grace and elegance emphasized o Started out fast and got slower o George Primrose (Irishman) • Leading performer of the soft shoe • Bill Robinson’s idol
Blackface
standard costume for minstrel show
used to the point that black minstrels wore blackface too, in order to be successful
Clown and Dandy
the two main minstrel characters
Lew Johnson’s Plantation Minstrel Company
first black minstrel company
1860s
wore blackface
circled lips with red and white
Mode of travel for minstrel troupes
railroad
helped spread minstrelsy across the country
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• By Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Most popular abolitionist play of the period
• First appeared on stage in 1852
• At first, the parts were all played by whites
• Gradually, other elements were added
o Ballet of black girls
o Cake walk
Decline of minstrelsy
vaudeville began to emerge
1906
• As this happened, blacks moved into o Circuses o Medicine shows o Carnivals o Vaudeville and theatre
Medicine Shows
- Small “hit and run” affairs
- Played mostly small towns
- Traveled by wagon with a “Doctor” and 2 or 3 “assistants”
- Stopped wherever they could find an audience
- Show centered around the “doctor” who made his living “spieling” or giving sales talks to sell medicine
- Assistants would try to draw a crowd by singing and dancing
- Comedy dancing
- Shuffles, struts, hops, twists, grinds, flat-footed Buck
- No set dance. Just thrown together for attention
- Dancers tried to outshine one another with flash steps
- Banjo played music
Gilles
- Next step up for dancer from a medicine show and very important
- Hired for skill
- Better money (doubled if a ‘barker’)
- Employed as many as 50 people
- Travel by special trucks called “gillies”
- Usually 2-3 rides, 3-4 tents, and some small stands
Jig Top
o 6-7 performers o 3-4 girl line with an ingénue o musical- tambourines, drums, or piano o straight man danced some and set up jokes o comedian was the featured dancer
Carnivals
- Traveled by railroad
- Paid better, more people involved
- Few animal acts and more rides, sideshows, and games
- Played week stands at state fairs
- Bigger carnivals- combination of small circuses and small scale minstrel shows
- Black performers were looked down upon, even by other blacks
Walk Around
often performed after the last section of minstrelsy, many believed it came from the ring shout. one of 2 authentic negro dances
Types of roadshows
Toms- presented some form of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
Plants- plantation scenes
Tabloid or tabs
In Old Kentucky
prominent road show group
o Organized around 1900
o White show except for musicians and dancers
o Plot about horse racing
o Friday night dance competitions for blacks
The Smart Set
prominent road show group
o Organized around 1900 o White producer, black cast o Plot about horse racing and politics o Not as classy as In Old Kentucky o Played to white audiences o Wednesday night buck and wing contests
Black Patti’s Troubadours
prominent road show group
o Most prestigious o Sissieretta Jones (Black Patti) o Organized by a white manager in 1885 o Toured south for 7 years o 3 parts • buck and wing contest • olio section • operatic kaleidoscope
TOBA
Theater Owners Booking Association • Black vaudeville o Different from the tent show o A chain of theaters developed • Most were tabloid versions of musical comedies o 3 shows/night o 45 minutes o 35 members in company • shows were like families • outlasted white vaudeville
Picks
• Young black boys performing with white stars
• Often white stars scouted their own picks
• If a kid got too big, no more work
• Developed kids’ ability and taught them showbiz, but was child labor
• Picks went out when vaudeville did
short for Pickaninny
The Whitman Sisters
• Show traveled 1890-943
• Played 2 week runs in big cities
• Started by playing various theatres and circuits
• Stuck with TOBA as headliners earning top money
• Had light skin, some thought they were white
• May, Essie, Bert, and Alice
• Song and dance
o Influenced other performers
o Featured dancers as dancers
“The Creole Show”
• Opened in 1889
• Broke the pattern of the minstrel show
• One of the first shows without blackface
• Included women in a singing/dancing chorus
• Dora Dean and Charles Johnson
o Did the final cake walk
o Later went into vaudeville
o Dora (African American) wore costumes worth $1000
Williams and Walker
- Opened in 1898
- Had a 40 week run on Broadway
- Picked up on Cake Walk as a comedy routine
- Walker = Dandy
- Williams = Clown
- Dancing followed the stage characters – made the cake walk popular
- Helped show the “inner” life of the black
- Played London in 1903 and took the cake walk there
- Built up a white following
“Oriental America”
- Opened in 1896
- First all black show on Broadway
- 3 part program
- Operatic arias to close, instead of the cake walk
- No dancing
- Show didn’t last long
“Clorindy - The Origin of the Cakewalk”
- Opened in 1898
- Introduced the Cake Walk to the legitimate stage
- Starred Ernest and Hogan
- Ragtime in a musical way
- Helped blacks on Broadway tremendously
- Minstrel show was out- blacks were now in legitimate theatre
Cake Walk
- Became a dance craze
- Most black shows featured it
- Some criticized it as a sex dance of African orgies
- Really an imitation of white manners on plantations
- Helped stress individual invention
- Helped keep blacks on stage
- Whites couldn’t do it as well
“The Black Crook”
- Opened on Broadway in 1866
- First example of musical comedy
- 5 ½ hours long
- Broadway’s first big hit
- Result of combining a French ballet troupe into the existing melodrama “The Black Crook”
- Big extravaganza- cost between $35,000- $55,000
- Continued to evolve during its run
- Many road companies toured
“H.M.S. Pinafore”
- Opened in 1978-1879 season
- First mounted in England
- created by Gilbert and Sullivan
- England did not have copyright agreement yet with US
- Many bootleg copies sprung up
- Original English presentation brought to NYC in 1879
“The Pirates of Penzance”
- Next Gilbert and Sullivan opera
- Opened in NYC right after HMS Pinafore, before opening in England to prevent bootleg copies
- Very funny
- Words and lyrics written from audience’s point of view
- Songs sung at home
“Florodora”
• 1900 • An important event • Come to America a year after its London premiere • One of Broadway’s big hits • Ran 505 shows • Toured the entire nation • Famous for its sextet, the Florodora Girls o Brunette and redhead o 5’4’’ o 130 lbs
American Vernacular Dance
combo of Irish and African dance
homegrown
native
became America’s own style
Interlocutor
master of ceremonies
lead first part of minstrel show
Show hierarchy for black performers
- Medicine show
- Gilly show
- Carnival
- Minstrel show, vaudeville, or a Broadway show
Prohibition of slave drums
- Whites thought that slaves could send messages by drum
- Banning of drums was used to help maintain order
- Rhythm was used through stomping, clapping, and song
Mr. Tambo and Mr. Jones
first part of minstrel show
they were the endmen (comedians)
Sherman Dudley
comedian
retired then bought and leased theaters beginning in 1915
formed the black and white theater owners booking association
“A Trip to Coontown”
- Opened in 1898
- Broke from the minstrel pattern (no cake walk)
- Written with continuity
- First black musical comedy
- First show organized, produced, and managed by blacks
“Jim Crow”
White actor T.O Rice impersonated an old crippled black man first time performed, borrowed clothes from a handyman backstage made a caricature of black dance
