Dancing Revolution presents richly diverse case studies to illuminate these patterns of movement and influence in movement and sound in the history of American public life. Christopher J. Smith spans centuries, geographies, and cultural identities as he delves into a wide range of historical moments. These include the God-intoxicated public demonstrations of Shakers and Ghost Dancers in the First and Second Great Awakenings; creolized antebellum dance in cities from New Orleans to Bristol; the modernism and racial integration that imbued twentieth-century African American popular dance; the revolutionary connotations behind images of dance from Josephine Baker to the Marx Brothers; and public movement's contributions to hip hop, antihegemonic protest, and other contemporary transgressive communities' physical expressions of dissent and solidarity.
Multidisciplinary and wide-ranging, Dancing Revolution examines how Americans turned the rhythms of history into the movement behind the movements.
| Cover Title Copyright Contents Preface Acknowlegdments Introduction: "Callin' out, around the world . . ." Chapter 1. Sacred Bodies in the Great Awakenings Chapter 2. A Tale of Two Cities I: Akimbo Bodies and the English Caribbean Chapter 3. Spaces, Whistles, Tags, and Drums: Irruptive Noise Chapter 4. A Tale of Two Cities II: Festival and Spectacle in the French Caribbean Chapter 5. Utopian Movements and Moments: Shakers and Ghost Dancers Chapter 6. Blackface Transformations I: Modernism, Primitivism, and Race Chapter 7. Blackface Transformations II: Voyeurism, Identity, and Double-Consciousness Chapter 8. Body and Spirit in a Post-1960s World: Hippies, Queens, Punks, and B-boys Chapter 9. Street Dance and the Dream of Freedom: "It's an invitation across the nation . . ." Notes Index |"Smith makes a convincing case for the many ways in which social participatory dance can bring bodies together in public spaces to assert their right to be present and to critique dominant values and power structures. . . . Certainly ambitious." —World of Music"His research is extraordinarily meticulous and comprehensive. . . . A vital resource for anyone invested in the potency of dance as a platform for social justice." —Journal of Dance Education
"A respected musicologist and vernacular musician, Smith offers a sprawling overview of vernacular dance in the US as evidence of people's 'contesting, constructing, and reinventing social orders'. Highly recommended." —Choice
|Christopher J. Smith is a professor, chair of musicology, and founding director of the Vernacular Music Center at the Texas Tech University School of Music. He is the author of the award-winning book The Creolization of American Culture: William Sidney Mount and the Roots of Blackface Minstrelsy.