Knowra African-American dance African-American dance African-American dance encompasses movement traditions created and sustained by African-American communities, combining African diasporic principles with changing musical, social, and theatrical forms.
African dance : Dance traditions across Africa use diverse movement vocabularies shaped by local histories, music, and social life. African diasporic movement principles inform many African-American dance traditions.
African-American vernacular dance : Social and popular dance forms developed in African-American communities outside formal concert-dance institutions. It names the community-based traditions at the center of this broader subject.
Atlantic slave trade : The forced transportation of millions of Africans across the Atlantic from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. Enslavement displaced African peoples while creating the conditions in which diasporic traditions formed.
Katherine Dunham : An American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist who incorporated Caribbean and African diasporic forms into modern dance. Her choreography and research connected African diasporic movement with concert dance.
Cultural appropriation : The adoption of elements of one culture by people or institutions outside that culture, often amid unequal power relations. Commercial reuse of Black dance can separate styles from their creators and communities.
Call and response : A pattern in which a leader’s musical or spoken phrase is answered by a group or another performer. Dancers and musicians often exchange phrases rather than follow a fixed one-way lead.
Jazz dance : A performance dance tradition shaped by African-American social dances, jazz music, and theatrical practice. It carries vernacular movement vocabulary onto concert and commercial stages.
Slavery in the United States : A system of racialized chattel slavery that existed in the United States until its abolition in 1865. Enslaved people preserved and reshaped movement practices under coercive conditions.
Alvin Ailey : An American choreographer who founded Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958. His company brought African-American experience and movement traditions to international stages.
Cultural appropriation in dance : The adoption or commercial presentation of dance forms across cultural boundaries, especially under unequal conditions of power. It addresses disputes over credit, profit, and context when Black-origin styles circulate.
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