Dancing Out of Form, Dancing into Self: Genre and Metaphor in Marshall, Shange, and Walker

Western culture has typically seen dance as an empowering activity, offering a forum for individual self-expression, or acting like a religious ritual that binds the community and spiritually renews the individual. In literature, the dance for centuries has been a conventional celebratory ending, all of Shakespeare's comedies, for example, concluding with a wedding dance. Northrop Frye has noted dance's presence in the masque, during which audience participation with the actors was encouraged (288); he also emphasizes the "participation mystique" of dance, comparing it to religious lyrics and "poems of community" (295-96). IN modern American popular culture, dance has been associated with opportunities for individual self-expression. For example, in American musical plays such as My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle's linguistic triumph at the ball is noted in "I Could Have Danced All Night." The Jets and Sharks of West Side Story sing, strut, and leap their masculine prowess, while Maria whirls in space, singing her love and female self-appreciation in "I Feel Pretty." And more recently, the heroine of the film Dirty Dancing has danced her way into independence and sexual maturity. For our culture, inherent in the act of dancing are, in varying degrees, self-affirmation, eroticism, spiritual renewal, and communal bonding, suggesting dance's ability to heal the mind/body split. This split, which especially afflicts women transculturally, is identified by Adrienne Rich, Jane Gallop, and others as a major force perpetuating patriarchal culture for American women. Leslie Gotfrit has argued that not only dancing but also writing about dance (and reading about it, I would add) helps to heal this mind/body division: "Dancing precipitates an incredible longing. To recover the pleasure -- in the imagining and `re-membering,' the connecting again with my limbs, my breath, my body -- is to ignite desire. These are rare moments of realizing my body and mind as not distinct, and of feeling the power of creativity when embodied. This is my history and investment in dance, always in the shadow of the writing" (176). This reintegration of body with mind is central to women's empowerment and to any political agenda that they may pursue (Gotfrit 184). Gotfrit explains how the physicality of the music and pleasure in the movement liberate women's normally controlled sexual feelings, a control society expects of women: in dance, "letting go of the tight rein women often keep on their sexuality is possible...dancing permits and frees the body to experience sensuality and desire, [and] sexuality (frequently and area of silence and pain in women's lives) is allowed expression"; a dancing woman thus experiences pleasure from contacting her own sexuality and also feels in control of herself (178-79). Because she is in control, a woman can resist attempts to turn her body into a sexual object. Eroticism, resistance to sexual oppression, and self-proclamation, as well as communal unification and spiritual rejuvenation, then, are some of the pleasures of dance sought by Western women. African cultures also recognize dance's affective and spiritual powers, giving dance a central place in their communal events, both secular and religious. As John S. Mbiti indicates in his book, Introduction to African Religion, music, singing, and dance together are used "in all activities of African life: in cultivating the fields, fishing, herding, performing ceremonies, praising rulers and warriors, hushing babies to sleep..." (8). Mbiti describes the function of music and dance during communal worship as a way of dissolving barriers between each person's mind, body, and spirit: "Through music, singing, and dancing, people are able to participate emotionally and physically in the act of worship. The music and dancing penetrate into the very being of the worshipping individuals" (61). Dance celebrations also dissolve barriers between individuals: "The dancing and rejoicing strengthen community solidarity and emphasize the corporateness of the whole group" (Mbiti, African Religion and Philosophy 182). …