ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY WITH THESIS STATEMENT

 

THESIS: African American stepping is a form of dance that involves the participation of the entire body parts to bring up complex rhythms and sounds using a systematic mixture of footsteps, hand claps, and other body gestures, deriving from African American sororities and fraternities within the past century.

 

"African dance". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc.., 2016 Web. 02 March. 2016 <http://www.britannica.com/art/African-dance>.

 

The website clearly recognizes the thoughts behind the African dance. It did typically emphasize on the various steps of dance. Dance as a form of entertainment serves a very important role in the African community. In the traditional indigenous dance, every performance had a principal role and other subsidiary purposes. This reflects on the community and expresses the social relationships and the communal value of the people. This forms a foundation that identifies the styles African step or stepping dance that is distinguished. It is evident to say that he article views the emergence of new dancing styles in Africa and its related forms. They include traditional, neo-traditional, and contemporary. Contemporary and neo-traditional have been increasing steadily which is evident through the results of radical social changes. This has been seen since the World War II.

 By a way of using this information, it is possible to identify the type and the extent of the relationship of the African American, their origin, and their time frame. In the journal, it is possible to point out that here are pieces of art that will facilitate the identification of their life at certain times. This will help me to make suitable references concerning the origin of the African American and make a strong argument on the comparison of their originality concerning the dance and their particular culture in Africa. It also facilitates the in the identification of their social framework.

 

Amin, Takiyah Nur. "Beyond Hierarchy: Reimagining Africa Diaspora Dance in Higher Education Curricula" Black Scholar. 46.1 (Spring 2016): 15-26. Print.

 

Diaspora refers to the movement by the people from their original homeland. African diaspora refers to the African communities moving from their native land Africa to other regions such as America, Middle East, Asia, Europe and other different regions round the globe. “African Diaspora dance’’ denotes to the wide variety of dance, communicative movements, philosophies that emanate from these groups (16-17). The article further expounds that the dance on the humanities and further elaborates the historical background of the dances that is full of lessons. By a way of embracing de-centering and practice-based approach in the form of privileged dance form will redesign the future of the dance field (25).

The editorial further allows me to draw attentive contrasts about how the dance came to be it evolution and its education in the colleges and the world. In higher education dance curricula puts into consideration of the responsibilities in the future and how to articulate the concerns raised by the student that will ensure that discipline is observed and the value gained will be exposed beyond academics. With this knowledge, it is possible to create a solid transition in academics in relation to step dance and its background. It will also facilitate the verification of the different methods between both early and late century of the African dance.

 

Mason, Nicola F. "The Diversity of African Music's: Zulu Kings, Xhosa Clicks, and Gumboot Dancing in South Africa." General Music Today 27.2 (January 2014): 30-35.

Print.

In this article, the biographers presents the diverse prospectuses. This explores the African songs and puts its emphasis on the cohesions in its music tradition. The range of African music offers a clear a path to its belief, culture, sounds and its uses in the inherent African music (30). There are deeper insights in the diversity of the African music especially if explore the rich culture of the South African music. Xhosa and the Zulu’s are found in South Africa and have rich traditions.  To explore this tradition there are three rhythm plans used they include songs, movements, techniques that are adaptable for any level. This rhythms are ideal for teachers since they can expand their ideas in the diverse music (33).  They have a culture-expanded curriculum that consists of diverse sounds of the various cultures, create an opportunity to learn and experience their rich culture which is inherent (33).

It is true to say the work of Nicola F. Mason can be used to arrive and make a conclusive truthful evidence of the step dance and it main and significant role in the American culture. I can make use of the music, the art, storytelling and the dance to give a true representation of the area, ethnic group or the country to mark clear distinctions. It is possible to make references of the unique dance and some of the dance steps that are enthusiastically tangled in the present American philosophy dance.

 

Thompson, Katrina Dyonne. Ring Shout, Wheel About: The Racial Politics of Music and Dance in North American Slavery. N.p: University of Illinois, 2014. Print

 

In this book, the authors have begun with the principle of the dance and the music and its multifaceted and disputed roles in the African American life. They also state its functions of the subjugation and the racial stereotype in providing any affirmative and liberating outlets of the many cultures. According to Eric Lott and Dale Cockrell the liberation, radical commodification, stereotype and the affirmation came to light in the nineteenth century. During this time, it was visible in the American entertainment field blackface minstrelsy. However, it is notable to say that according to T. D Rice in the “jumped Jim crow’’ the deconstruction of the complex music, slavery, dance and American culture quartet is a theatrical production. The book reveals of the exploration of the “Dark Continent’’ was carried out, the quench of the Europeans fantasies and how the music and the dance propagate racial imagery. With the assumptions about the black people and their behavior, there was a follow-up by the Europeans and the Euro-American to understand and explain how Africans have dispersed and their new role in the contented, inferior and entertained elements in the northern part of America.

It is possible to use this book as my key basis of information to join key ideas and ideologies that have been brought in the western world. Drawing a conclusion in the impressive range of the information that includes journals, slave’s narratives and master accounts there shall be credible information about the cultural history. It will also show how dance and music has shaped the African American and the Euro-American characters and how the makers of the American philosophy influenced the arts of performance to shape public opinion.