Steppin' on the blues
Subtitle: the visible rhythms of African American dance
By: Jacqui Malone.
Series: Folklore and society
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Urbana
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
Subjects: African American dance -- History
Other titles: Stepping on the blues
Description: Steppin' on the Blues explores not only the meaning of dance in African American life but also the ways in which music, song, and dance are interrelated in African American culture. Dance as it has emanated from the black community is a pervasive, vital, and distinctive form of expression - its movements speak eloquently of African American values and aesthetics. Beyond that it has been, finally, one of the most important means of cultural survival.

Former dancer Jacqui Malone throws a fresh spotlight on the cultural history of black dance, the Africanisms that have influenced it, and the significant role that vocal harmony groups, black college and university marching bands, and black sorority and fraternity stepping teams have played in the evolution of dance in African American life.

From the cakewalk to the development of jazz dance and jazz music, all Americans can take pride in the vitality, dynamism, drama, joy, and uncommon singularity with which African American dance has gifted the world.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [215]-251) and index.
Table of contents: title: "Gimme de kneebone bent" : music and dance in Africa; title: "Keep to the rhythm and you'll keep to life" : the style of African American vernacular dance; title: Overture to vocal choreography : vernacular dance on "stage" (slavery 1950); title: "Let the punishment fit the crime" : the vocal choreography of Cholly Atkins; title: The history of bands : from African rituals to New Orleans : second lines: the FAMU marching 100 : historical overview; title: colonial America to World War I; title: The FAMU marching 100 : from ballpark bleachers to national TV; title: African American secret societies : remebering the past and facing the future fraternities and sororities : "a way of remembering"; title: Stepping : regeneration through dance in African American fraternities and sororities : regeneration through dance.