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By Joe Nash
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| "First Negro Dance Recital." |
Harlem
in the 1920s and 1930s, a symbol of the Jazz Age, the flip side
of Main Street, became home to a spectacular creative resurgence
known as the Harlem Renaissance. The neighborhood was bursting at
the seams with people from the West Indies, Puerto Rico, Latin America,
and diverse parts of the southern United States. And joining the
throng of writers, musicians, singers, painters, and artists flocking
to the mecca on the Hudson, triggering cultural critical mass were
dancers and choreographers. Filled with the hype and hope fostered
by the proliferation of the "new" -- New Masses, New Era, New Science,
New Woman -- this group of dancers was anxious to wrestle with the
negative images popularized by decades of minstrelsy to create a
New Negro dance. Rhodes scholar Alain Locke's 1925 book, THE NEW
NEGRO, was the creative catalyst that helped set the whole thing
off while also defining the nature of the mission. Langston Hughes,
Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, James Weldon Johnson and his brother
J. Rosamond Johnson, Sterling Brown, Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois,
Claude McKay, Carl Van Vechten, Zora Neale Hurston, and others laid
the foundation for the idea that the arts could play a critical
role in crafting a new image for the race. Here are the highlights
of a decade of dance pioneers and their struggle to successfully
enter the world of concert dance.
The Background: In 1931 ...
Black dancer Feral Benga appeared as a star attraction
at the Folies Bergère in Paris. Josephine Baker, the ebony Venus, appearing
at the Casino de Paris, received the adulation of such people as Erich
Remarque, who said "she brought an elemental strength and beauty to the tired showplace of Western civilization."
Buddy Bradley, behind-the-scenes choreographer for all-white Broadway
shows, taught rhythm dancing to Broadway luminaries at Billy Pierce's Dance
Studio. "Minnie the Moocher" was introduced by Cab Calloway at the Cotton Club, and "Mood Indigo" was Duke Ellington's latest composition.
Shimmy dancer, singer, and actress Ethel Waters starred in "Blackbirds of 1931."
"Hot from Harlem" featured three-time winner of the award for "Best Dancer
on Broadway," Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and "Rhapsody in Black" displayed the
extraordinary talents of "Snake Hips" Tucker and the tap class act of Eddie
Rector.
Theater critics were acknowledging the influence of Negro dancing and
singing in Broadway shows and revues. Performers were described as possessing "supervitality," and they "infected spectators with high spirits," "providing a dashing, exciting rapidly-paced quality," and "creating an atmosphere full of the ecstasy and joy of living." In addition, critics asserted that "chorus dancing has taken on an importance in musical shows it never had before and producers are searching for more dances out of the black experience." The film TRADER HORN presented yet another distorted version of African culture. Dances in it were referred to as "grotesque" and the music was considered "weird off-rhythms."
This was the era of black entertainers and attitudes formed by
inauthentic images in minstrelsy, drama, literature, and films. Prevalent
thinking declared that "the Negro dancer is a natural-born entertainer," that
"training would diminish their natural gifts and effectiveness on the stage,"
and that "they must guard against the white man's art of dance." This was
the time of the Depression and fading interest in black musicals. Yet the
creative impulse of the Harlem Renaissance would influence and spur the
beginning of a black aesthetic in dance. The Negro was a modern dancer long
before the movement began in America or Europe.
The propitious moment to make an artistic statement in movement, as had been made in spirituals, poetry, drama, and art, had arrived. In place of the Broadway stage, the dancing ground would be the concert hall. The aesthetic manifesto of the Harlem Renaissance would provide a philosophical underpinning for "the new Negro dance." And just as poets and writers "tore away the mask that grins and lies to reveal the stark black truth beneath," pioneer dancers and choreographers would use the art form that delights the gods to express their aspirations, ideals, and understanding of the grim struggle of the black soul.
The pioneers of dance included Hemsley Winfield, Edna Guy, Randolph Sawyer, Mabel Hart, Alma Sutton, Lavinia Williams, Asadata Dafora, Al Bledger, Ad Bates, Charles Williams, Bernice Brown, Belle Rosette, and Maudelle Weston. Their names are not as familiar as Katherine Dunham's but still significant in the history of the African-American modern dance tradition. These individuals who found little encouragement to pursue their dreams were able to succeed on the dance stage.
They were confronted with the questions "Could the Negro create a vital art form based upon his African and Caribbean heritage?" And if so, "What should the Negro dance about?" The pioneers sought to portray positive images of black culture despite expectations of what they should or shouldn't do on the concert stage.
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