Week 2 ~ Dance histories

This week's material was focused on the history of dance mainly from the swing era. The 1900s was a time where the social climate was far from easy, and one where racial and class segregation was the norm rather than the excpetion.

Paul Cressey [1968 (1932)] provides us with an overview of the social climate of the USA during the early to mid 1900s when mass urbanisation brought people from thoughout the country to urban centres such as Chicago, LA, and New York. Believing that these evolving urban centres brought with them many challenges to the expression of peoples' identity and personality, Cressey set about to research the dance-hall climate in Chicago in 1925, for according to him "among the recreational institutions of the American city none perhaps reveals with as much clarity as many of the perplexing problems which make difficult the wholesome expression of human nature in the urban setting as does the public dance hall" [1968: ix]. Cressey goes on to provide insightful descriptions and observations of the dance-hall climate; the 'taxi-dancers' (women paid for a dance) that work there; and the patrons that attend the event; as well as a typology of dance-halls present at that time (he identifies fourteen). Overall I find that the article provides for interesting reading, however I find it difficult to bring it into dialogue with other material and experiences as Cressey is not proposing any theory or debatable statements - he is merely identifying what the social climate of the dance-halls represented at that time. Lewis Erenberg's [1998] article also focusing on the swing era in the US and provides a beautifull overview of how the era itself came about. Erenberg looks at this time in history from a mostly musical perspective - namely looking at how jazz came to be replaced by swing. He poses the argument that swing came to break down the boundaries of segregation, that it "represented a cultural phenomenon that bridged the significant gap between races and classes" present within American society at that time. The key of swing was that it integrated African derived rhythms, and thus dance movements, into a performance genre which appealed to both American and African-American youths. With this new music, and the signing of the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the new youths of America were called on to have fun, party, and experiment - this led to a surge in dance venues and with that the pushing of societal boundaries through music and dance; amongst which were the jive, jitterbug and the lindyhop.

Having read this material I couldn't help wondering whether the dances at that time really did have the effects mentioned in the social climate at that time - did swing really break down bariers? Is dance able to bridge the gap between a divided community? Personally I have seen how powerful music and dance can be in the bringing together of people, that it enables people to forget about the norms and regulations impossed by society - but how long does this 'power last'? Does the experience of 'spontanious communitas', to use Turner's phrase, extend beyond the moment of the event? This question continues to puzzle me, for if one is to believe Erenberg one would think that once swing appeared on the scene all social segregation was abonlished - however we all know this is far from actuality. But on the other hand, it could well be arguable that the dancing together of people whom outside the dance-hall may never have interacted could lower the sense of 'difference' between them - that through sharing that time and space of leisure activity a sence of camraderie is initiated.

By way of talking about Ceroc (also referred to as today's version of jive which is not far from the truth in my opinion, altough if you watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am3jbZv5un8 you can see that it is alot less bouncy than jive and includes some ballroom moves), we landed on another topic which raised the issue of globalisation and the diffusion of dance movements/steps across geographical boundaries. Gottschild [2000] argues that there are elements of African derived dance movements in almost all of todays dances. I am not sure that this is not somewhat of an exaggeration, but I do belief that the cross-pollination of dance styles is inevitable in todays highly mobile and interconnected world.

This week's salsa workshop was absolutely fantastic. There being only four or five leaders amongst us this week we spent the session focusing on the follower's move and learnt the chica vuelta - basically an underarma right hand turn which occurs on beats 4 to 6 - as well as the 'rumba' step - which envolves both dancers stepping sideways instead of backwars and forwards, the step is signalled to the follower by means of the leader holding on the the left hand instead of letiing go on the last beat of the preceding bar. We danced in a circle dividing the leaders amongst us and those without partner going it solo. There was a great energy in the room this week and people seemd alot more at ease and 'up for the challenge' so to speak.

For those who just cant keep still and want to try their hand at some jive here's a link which is, to be honest, pretty funny - "school of cool"? are you serious??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKBNbKWCPII

And for those who want to practice their cuban salsa...here's what it should look like!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6jSioQ5MWc