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“Oh, You Black Bottom!” Appropriation, Authenticity, and Opportunity in the Jazz Dance Teaching of 1920s New York1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2014

Danielle Robinson
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Head tossed back wearing a mile-wide grin, ecstatic arms stretched to the sky, jutting knees counterbalancing a substantial backside—the Jazz Age had no symbol more potent than the moving black body (Figure 1). Nearly always an illustration, and in many cases a caricature, these images depicted anonymous black movers rather than recognizable individuals. Yet, looking beyond this superficial representation, it was actually visibly white dance professionals who primarily marketed jazz steps to the American public as teachers and choreographers. A quick glance through the pages of the nascent Dance Magazine of the 1920s reveals numerous jass dance routines with names such as “High Yaller,” “Pickin’ Cotton,” “The Savannah Stomp,” and the “Hula-Charleston,” each represented by a specific white Broadway performer (Fig. 2). Standing just behind each dancer, however, is a dark dancing figure that remains nameless and faceless.

Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 38 , Issue 1-2 , Summer/Winter 2006 , pp. 19 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 2006

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