BlackART Roots: Free To Dance: What Do You Dance 60 mins
Produced by Madison Davis Lacy
Price: $3.99
"What Do You Dance?" begins the story of the evolution of a uniquely American form of movement with African slaves on a southern plantation hunched low to the ground, feet pounding the earth with rhythmic intensity as they hum, clap, sing, and dance the "Ring Shout" -- one of the dances writer Ralph Ellison called America's first choreography.
As the dominant strain in a cultural synthesis of Irish clogs, Scottish jigs, English reels, Spanish fandangos, Caribbean rhythms, and more, African dances left an indelible imprint on American dance. The story of their influence unfolds against the backdrop of American history, tracing Africans through slavery, the Great Migration north, the culturally rich Harlem Renaissance, racial segregation, and the Great Depression. For many Americans, African dance, from the plantation "Ring Shout "and "Cakewalk" to the Jazz Age "Charleston," "Black Bottom," and tap, was a liberating force from the rigid restrictions of European dance and culture. And in the early 1900s, when American choreographers Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, and Ruth St. Denis created a revolutionary alternative to Europe's classical ballet, African-American dancers played a role in this "aesthetic dance" movement.
Comments | hide
"Africa: Open For Business" probes into the world of successful African businesses and exposes myths...
The language of media production and distribution is one that has often written its own script. The artist...
Here are titles, which through the exploration of sometimes-controversial themes and characters highlight...
What does it mean to be a man? The Masculinity Project will gather multi-generational voices to explore...
Tales of the Diaspora are many and here a global cross section will be selected to give life to contemporary...
An honest perspective of the world would not be near complete without the younger voices of any generation...
The Ghosts of John Jay 4mins 30secs
A short documentary exploring from a student perspective the truth about a seemingly notorious high school in Brooklyn, New York.
Taxi (2008) 6mins 31secs
Filmmaker Javan Cornelius explores race in a very modern context - the back seat of a taxi cab.
Bi-Racial Hair 4miins 55secs
A young teen girl ponders race and its meaning for her through a poem about her hair.
Reparation Blues 5mins
A performance piece on the modern meaning of the displacement caused by slavery, around the controversial issue of reparations.
Leslie Fields-Cruz discusses Open Call
Leslie Fields-Cruz discusses the open call process via web chat.
NMI 2007 ~ Juke Joint Live 5mins
As part of NBPC's 2007 New Media Institute, Jacqueline Olive and Darcie Sanders create an audio pod exploring the history of juke joints in Mississippi
Black Filmmakers On Film: Byron Hurt 23mins 34secs
Filmmaker Noland walker interviews other black media makers on past and present projects.
NMI 2007 ~ Sojuke 2mins
A poem by poet Bryonn Bain, accompanying the 2007 NMI project Juke Joint Live.
Voters’ Rights Seized due to Incarceration
Once behind bars, most prisoners lose the right to vote and even after they are released they don’t...
NMI 2006 ~ The Other Side 3mins 16secs
Ever wondered what would happen if you kept throwing a tennis ball at a wall?
NMI 2006 ~Black Hole 2 mins
A video-textural exploration of the physics of well-being as it relates to blackness.
NMI 2007 ~ Blues People 2mins 47secs
As part of NBPC's 2007 New Media Institute, producers around the nation convened in Jackson Mississippi to document the blues through new media.
Breaking Silences 10mins
A discussion of the alarming rate of domestic violence against women of color on college campuses.
NMI 2007 ~ Blues People 2mins 07secs
As part of NBPC's 2007 New Media Institute, producers around the nation convened in Jackson Mississippi to document the blues through new media.
Daallo Airlines 6mins 41secs
Not withstanding a collapsed government, Somalian businessman Mohammed Yassin Olad maintains a successful, and critical, airline business.
NMI 2007 ~ Remixing The Blues 1min 34secs
As part of NBPC's 2007 New Media Institute, producers around the nation convened in Jackson Mississippi to document the blues through new media.
Pictoons: Animated In Senegal 6min 48secs
A professional animation house in Dakar, Senegal survives and creates amidst a still evolving landscape.






















I"am a African-Dutch woman, I leave in The Netherland ( Europe ) But I was born in Surinam .It was very good for me and my family to watch the dance and the story.
Mrs . Marijke Smuller
Posted by M. Smuller | Apr 06 2008 at 07:49 pm