 | Dancing Many Drums Few will dispute the profound influence that African American music and movement has had in American and world culture. Dancing Many Drums explores that influence through a groundbreaking collection of essays on African American dance history, theory, and practice. In so doing, it reevaluates "black" and "African American " as both racial and dance categories. Abundantly illustrated, the volume includes images of a wide variety of dance forms and performers, from ring shouts, vaudeville, and social dances to professional dance companies and Hollywood movie dancing. Thomas F. DeFrantz is associate professor of music and theater arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey's Embodiment of African American Culture (Oxford U Press, 2004). In addition to scholarly articles, he has written on dance for the Village Voice and Philadelphia Inquirer . He is a dancer and choreographer and for many years directed the dance history program at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York City. |
