Sunday, May 30, 1999
African-American dance exhibit educates, gets your spirit moving
BY CAROL NORRIS
Enquirer contributor
When African slaves were brought to this country in the 1600s they were not only ripped from their families and culture, they were stripped of their possessions. Drums, which had always played a vital role in African communities in celebrating life, didn't make the trip across the Atlantic.
In spite of overwhelming oppression, drum rhythms were not forgotten, but stored in the memories of many slaves. Dance, always prominent in African culture, became an important release for self-expression.
The National Afro-American Museum in Wilberforce, Ohio, spotlights the history and legacy of African-American dance with the opening of When the Spirit Moves: The Africanization of American Movement.
It is well worth the drive to Wilberforce (about 55 miles, directions below).
Developed by Bennie Welch Design Concepts of Evanston, Ill., this expansive exhibit opened Sunday and runs through Nov. 28. Using videos, pictures, the printed word, life-size cut-outs and artifacts, the exhibit examines the legacy of black dance from slavery era's “The Ring Shout” to today's hip-hop.
Rather than dying out with time and assimilation, dance became important in uniting and nurturing communities of Africans. By the early 1900s, black dances were becoming a part of mainstream American culture.
A large exhibit room is surrounded by TV-size videos showing rare footage of Pearl Primus, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (the granddaddy of tap dance) and the Nicholas Brothers. Viewers are tempted to push the start button repeatedly.
Concert dance is represented by excerpts from works of Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and Katherine Dunham.
You can see the cakewalk demonstrated, read about black minstrel and vaudeville shows and see the jitterbug as it was meant to be done. (Today's swing dancing pales in comparison.)
There's a reconstruction of a “jook,” roughly a shack in the woods where blues were played and dance steps practiced in early post-slavery days.
The material runs from the lighthearted to the more serious with pictures of slave ships and exhibits of manacles. Not to give everything away, there are things more fun to learn firsthand. If you think the end-zone dance originated with Ickey Woods, the Bengals running back in the late '80s, you will learn you're wrong. The exhibit has the jersey and the scoop on the first end-zone dance guy.
The exhibit succeeds in informing on a variety of levels with appeal to dancers, African Americans, school children, families and history buffs to start the list. Entertaining while respecting the history represented, it acknowledges that dance was an avenue to freedom — freedom of the spirit.
IF YOU GO
What: When the Spirit Moves: The Africanization of American Movement.
When: through Nov. 28.
Where:National Afro-American Museum, 1350 Brush Row Road. Wilberforce. (from Cincinnati: I-75 North to I-675/Columbus exit to U.S. 35 (Xenia), left on Columbus Avenue, two blocks to U.S. 42 (slight right), two miles to Brush Row Road (left).
Tickets: $4; $1.50 children and students.
Information: 937-376-4944.
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