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Examining social and popular dance forms from a variety of critical and cultural perspectives

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments   xi
Introduction   /   Julie Malnig   1

SECTION 1   /   HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS
1. Our National Poetry   /   The Afro-Chesapeake Inventions of American Dance   19   Jurretta Jordan Heckscher
2. The Civilizing of America's Ballrooms   /   The Revolutionary War to 1890   36   Elizabeth Aldrich
3. "Just Like Being at the Zoo"   /   Primitivity and Ragtime Dance   55   Nadine George-Graves
4. Apaches, Tangos, and Other Indecencies   /   Women, Dance, and New York Nightlife of the 1910s   72   Julie Malnig

SECTION 2   /   EVOLVING STYLES
5. Reality Dance   /   American Dance Marathons   93   Carol Martin
6. The Trianon and On / Reading Mass Social Dancing in the 1930s and 1940s in Alberta, Canada   109   Lisa Doolittle
7. Negotiating Compromise on a Burnished Wood Floor   /   Social Dancing at the Savoy   126   Karen Hubbard and Terry Monaghan
8. Rumba Then and Now   /   Quindembo   146   Yvonne Daniel
9. Embodying Music/Disciplining Dance   /   The mambo Body in Havana and New York City   165   David F. Garcia
10. Rocking Around the Clock   /   Teenage Dance Fads from 1955 to 1965   182   Tim Wall
11. Beyond the Hustle   /   1970s Social Dancing, Discotheque Culture, and the Emergence of the Contemporary Club Dancer   199   Tim Lawrence

SECTION 3   /   THEATRICALIZATIONS OF SOCIAL DANCE FORMS
12. "A Thousand Raggy, Draggy Dances"   /   Social Dance in Broadway Musical Comedy in the 1920s   217   Barbara Cohen-Stratyner
13. From Bharata Natyam to Bop   /     Jack Cole's "Modern" Jazz Dance   234   Constance Valis Hill
14. From Busby Berkeley to Madonna   /   Music Video and Popular Dance      247   Sherril Dodds
15. The Dance Archaeology of Rennie Harris   /   Hip-Hop or Postmodern?   261   Halifu Osumare

SECTION 4   /   THE CONTEMPORARY SCENE
16. "C'mon to My House"   /   Underground House Dancing   285   Sally R. Sommer
17. Dancing Latin/Latin Dancing   /   Salsa and Dancesport   302   Juliet McMains
18. Louisiana Gumbo   /   Retention, Creolization, and Innovation in Contemporary Cajun and Zydeco Dance   323   May Gwin Waggoner
19. The Multiringed Cosmos of Krumping   /   Hip-Hop Dance at the Intersections of Battle, Media, and Spirit   337   Christina Zanfagna

Contributors   355
Index   361

About the Author

Julie Malnig is an associate professor at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University and the author of Dancing Till Dawn: A Century of Exhibition Ballroom Dance.

Reviews

"An incredibly needed volume for undergraduate and graduate students, teachers, and advisors in the field of dance. These essays afford compelling glimpses into communities dancing in particular places and times; the authors provide nuanced understandings of dancing as a means of forming identity and community." Ann Dils, co-editor of Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader "This invaluable volume covers an impressive range of genres, illuminating the liveliness and diversity of social dance. The book makes a unique contribution at a time when the field of dance studies is expanding to include forms other than Euro-American concert dance. An excellent book and a godsend for classroom use." Tricia Henry Young, director of the graduate program in American dance studies, Florida State University