aadh thursday - jan 18 sacred and secular dance voodoo early plantation dances new orleans and congo...
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AADH Thursday - Jan 18
Sacred and Secular dance Voodoo Early Plantation dancesNew Orleans and Congo SquareANGEL
Guidelines for Project One and EC PaperQuiz # 1 – open from after class to Friday at 6 PMProject One - model paper
Questions from Tuesday
Black Dance of the Caribbean, 1518-1900
Caribbean circumstances
French and Spanish Catholics - more liberal than Protestants in US.
Church wanted to save the slave’s souls - Let them enjoy their dances
Drum critical to this history - Rhythm is essential – variety of percussive instruments
The importance of the drum and consequences of it’s loss
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Drums and Percussion
Variuos sizes - played with hands, sticks and feet
Bonjour or Banjo - a box with four strings (horsehair), played by fingers - percussive style
Rattle - calabash, a gourd filled with pebbles on a sticks
Drum - banned in some places as early as 1700 (believed to cause rebellion)
The importance of the drum and consequences of it’s loss
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Primary Caribbean Dances
Calenda - a favorite from Guinea. Banned by 1724, considered immodest and a fear of large groups of slaves gathering
Two lines, male and female. Slap the thighs together. Couples in a clapping ring - advance and retreat
Lead singer improvised song with a chorus refrain. Drum tells them when to advance and retreat.
Men and women both spin, arms are raised, elbows in close
Rigorous meter, dancers replace one another when tired.
Bodies twist on their axis/ advance toe and heel
Primary Caribbean Dances
Chica/Bamboula
Woman alone - immobile upper body, pelvis gyrations, then a man joins in the rhythm and displays his agility.
Whites see this as lustful and debauchery
Rotation of the hips, quiet upper body, women tease, men pursue
Primary Caribbean Dances
Juba - a distinct dance of competition and skill
Performed in a ring, solo vs solo, exchange of the dancer who loses or is fatigued first.
Slapping of thighs “ patting juba” is part of accompaniment
Congo - a circle dance to a song, solo
Patting Juba - “Juba dis and Juba dat”
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Primary Caribbean Dances
John Canoe - Jonkonnu
Leaders were best male dancers, chosen for agilityBearded masks with ox horns and boars tusks at the mouth, costume made of rags with goat horns hanging off of it.
Men followed by red and blue women sets
Dancing as if possessed (embodied) by the devil (a god/spirit)
Jonkonnu Festival
Paste board house worn on the headfilled with puppets - taken to cemetaryto be filled with spirits of ancestors.
Primary Caribbean Dances
A dance of Social commentary at Christmas
a time of greatest license among slaves, whites and blacks drank and socialized together, short period of equality.
Whites conscious of the potential for violence and rebellion
Whites hoped the good humor would prepare slaves for a long year of slave labor. More than a dance
Primary Caribbean Dances
Funeral dances
Dead spirit honored and entertained so it will leave earth - be a positive force for the descendants
Dance also serves as emotional release for grief
Night funeral dances - slaves had to work till sundown - became wild and ultimately banned
Dancing serves to reaffirm community solidarity after dance.
Primary Caribbean Dances
Crop Over dances
When last crop is in - a time of celebration and the slaves mingled with whites. White dance forms predominate. Scotch reels/ country dances with fiddle.
Dancing here is possible origin of the cakewalk so big in US
Sacred Dancing – VoodooDance - a vehicle to communicate with the gods - personal,
concentrated, embodied, physical more than mental
Religion part of everyday life - not a once a week obligation
Religious practice included rituals both set and improvised
Rituals based in song and dance - the supreme experience is possession. A god choose you to speak through
Syncretic blend of African beliefs/rituals and Catholic dogma evolved into voodoo
Sacred Dancing – Voodoo
Voodoo is Dahomean term for deity
Vaudou, Vodu, Voodoo - ancestor spirit to be worshipped
Standardized in Haiti between 1750 and 1790
Loa - gods chief loa = Damballa = serpent god
Snake is all powerful- an earth goddess - Adam succumbed to the snake, all depend on the earth
Loas had counterpoint in Catholic saints - St. Patrick associated with Damballa
Sacred Dancing – Voodoo
Three divisions (pantheons) of Voodoo
Rada Dahomey - deities from Dahomean kingdom of W Africa - benevolent, paternal. Largest group of loa.
Petro - patrons of aggressive action. Born of rage against circumstances of enslavement.
Various divisions of Congo
Each division has particular drums, songs and loa. 1000’s of loa - Each dead ancestor can become one. The loa have the tastes, morality and ambitions of modern man.
Sacred Dancing – VoodooPossession by the loa is to be “mounted” or ridden as the “horse” for the loa. The
possessed person expresses the personality of the loa.
Potemta - center pole around which dances circle, the entry way of the loa
Priestess (mambo) Priest (harensi, hamga) often become possessed
Dances and Loa - the loa is revealed by the possessed person’s dance. Also specific drum rhythms call certain loa.
Yanvalou done for Damballa and Agwe Yonvalu - undulation - snakelike sideways steps, writhing, twist, slither
Loas come to instruct and bless participants. Each loa has a drum rhythm and distinctive dances.
Sacred Dancing – VoodooPrimary Loas
1) Legba - guardian of the crossroads - a limping dance / or one legged acrobatic twirling
2) Agwe - undulations wavelike motion down arms and spine from shoulders, water
3) Erzulie - dance an attitude, feminine grace – in arms and wrists (Virgin Mother)
4) Asaka - mountain and field – god of agriculture bending low as if planting or hoeing,
5) Guede - brisk like rhythm frankly obscene, high kicks pelvis in front, figure of life and death – keeper of the cemetery. Also sexuality. Women bump their pelvis to him for positive fertility.
Livings gods of Haiti
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Sacred Dancing – Ring ShoutRing Shout - this retained much of the African character of sacred dance-
fit within the restrictions of Protestant Church
Crossing the feet forbidden - a side to side shuffle
Drumming - also forbidden after mid 18th century - caused emphasis on hand clapping and foot stamping.
Hand clapping and foot stamping, most African survival – allowed under above rules. Dance went in a counter clockwise direction - in Africa directed to the ancestors/gods - turn back time.
Ring Shout
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Dance on the Plantations
Changes in US
In US more significant changes - Africanisms diminish
Drums become outlawed, new forms develop
New African slaves continue to renew traditions and rhythms
Slave trade abolished around 1800 - West Indian slave infusions re-invigorate the US African slave revolution
Dance on the PlantationsChanges in USCato conspiracy or Stono insurrection 1739 South Carolina
What were the implications of the Stono insurrection?
Drums used to sustain the march of the escaping slaves to Florida. Thereafter drums were banned and also assembly of slaves prohibiting socializing during their infrequent holidays
Dance on the PlantationsSlaves would gather to dance on own plantation or with a
pass go to a dance at a nearby plantation
Buck, Buck and Wing
Pigeon wing
Jig - based on Irish jigs, a competitive and solo dance
Cakewalk - used banjos
Buzzard Lope
Juba - African origin Djouba (sacred) in US, secular
The Cakewalk
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The Cakewalk
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Dance in New OrleansSpecial circumstances - founded by French and remains culturally French
(1762-1800 officially Spanish) returned to France, sold to US in 1804
Catholic more tolerant
Regular influx and contact with authentic African sources, especially after Haiti Rebellion 1804
Code Noir - any drop of white blood gives you privileges over all black,
people of color a clear a mid level class. Jim Crow laws will change this to any drop of black blood
denied your rights. Cannot marry white or black, women therefore mainly became
mistresses of white men
Dance in New Orleans
Quadroon Balls- 1/4 black, octaroon- 1/8 black
Formal balls held to introduce women of color to white males of high society, quadroon mothers attended and
bargained for the official keeping of their daughters.
Men of color, out of luck, few women to marry
Dances were strictly white fashion, mimicked Paris waltzes, etc. Gens de colour rejected all that was black culture
White society women were also upset because their men were pre-occupied with the very beautiful quadroon women
Dance in New OrleansCongo Square
Congo plains area NW of city, designated as a place for African slaves to dance on Sundays until sundown
Under surveillance of authorities, yet allowed to regularly congregate in large numbers
Drums allowed, gombay mentioned, baboula
Started around 1805 until mid 1880’s began with infusion of West Indian slaves and owners from Haiti, ended with Northern migration of blacks to factories in cities (1817 official pronouncement, after Louisiana purchase)
Dance in New OrleansCongo Square
West Indian forms predominate, Calenda, Chica, Congo, Bamboula
At first, public derision of this spectacle, uncivilized and lascivious to white and religious observers
Later becomes predominant, many concentric circles of dancers. descriptions of frenzied leaps, rhythmic upper body movements,
large group improvisation around central dancer