Dancers & Choreographers - Biography, Dance, African American Entertainers - Biography
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Overview
This nonfiction series traces the influence of African traditions on African-American Arts in the areas of Dance, Music, Art, Literature/Drama/Film, and Cooking. The books integrate the African-American people into the development of each art form and are a celebration of African heritage. This series is excellent for African-American studies and Black History Month.In Dance, the authors detail how traditional African dances, an important part of African culture, came to the Western World with the slaves and how they have evolved, becoming a part of popular dances such as the tango and the cakewalk, as well as tap, modern dance, and ballet. The book discusses the contributions of several famous African-American dancers such as Bill Robinson, Gregory Hines, Katherine Dunham, Alvin Ailey, Savion Glover, and others.
Explores the dance traditions of African Americans, from their origins in the expressive dances that the slaves brought from Africa through the development of jazz and tap to modern dance and ballet.
Editorials
School Library Journal
Gr 5 UpEach of these books offers social history as well as a study of the evolution of an art form. The African roots of African-American dance and music begin each volume. In Dance, the basis of minstrelsy, vaudeville, jazz dancing, disco, rock, break dancing, hip-hop, etc., are carefully discussed. The contributions and influence of stars such as Katherine Dunham, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and Alvin Ailey are acknowledged and their place in the continuum of African-American dance's development is pinpointed. The volume on music is similarly formatted. The origins of African-American music are traced to the slaves, and the music's cultural importance is emphasized. Readers follow the evolution of musical styles such as jazz, blues, and gospel singing. The advent of rock `n' roll, soul music, and rap is explained as the influence of African-American arts on white culture is documented. The history of racism in the United States underlies much of this story. Unfortunately, a questionable fact in the volume on music asserts that blacks were not permitted to go to Broadway theaters in the 1950s. Apart from this, these well-written volumes, profusely illustrated with high-quality black-and-white and full-color photos, present a thorough overview of each art form. They make good updates for James Haskins's Black Music in America (1987) and Black Dance in America (1990, both Crowell).Renee Steinberg, Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJBook Details
Published
March 1, 1997
Publisher
Twenty-First Century Books (CT)
Pages
80
Format
Binding
ISBN
9780805044812