![]() I am aware that this essay grossly-indiscriminately-lumps all white people and all black people together without addressing the variations due to cultural perspectives, attitudes, or expressions. This fundamental difference of perspectives regarding the body has led to different philosophies and rules of engagement regarding dance and movement-in other words, black and white people talk differently and that leads to miscommunication, misunderstanding, and even disrespect. This tradition comes into direct conflict with the African tradition and the traditions of the African Diaspora, where the knowledge from the body is not only valued just as much as the knowledge from the mind, but continually used, acknowledged, and sought after. I think this phenomenon is linked, in part, to the Puritanical tradition and white culture's fundamental devaluing and mistrust of the knowledge gathered from and experienced through the body. Refer to the diamond footnote on page 3 for more info.) (To go further understand what I mean by the flow-think of it like overall meaning or point or culture of dance. Lastly, a dance performance is comparable to a paper, essay, poem, novel, book, etc.īy all of this, I mean to say that when I say white people can't dance or at least can't dance with black people, I mean that they have not only not picked up a certain set of rules and regulations associated with the body and the overall beat of (black) dance, but also-in many cases- have not picked up the overall flow-philosophy of (black) dance. A dance move is comparable to a well-formed speech or lecture. The analogy I am making here is that the body language we use when talking is also language, but it is what would be comparable to everyday speech. It probably is the most articulate form of body language. sentences have to have a subject and a verb: She cried.) Again dance is a language-means of expression. There are rules and regulations for grammar (i.e. Procedural means the rules and regulations. The dictionary defines rhythm as the procedural aspect of a beat or flow. Don't get it twisted rhythm and grammar are really one in the same. Its movements are its words and its grammar is its rhythm. I think the reason for it includes some parts of that, but also something more systemic or structural - race relations and learning cultural contexts.ĭancing is a language (in the way we think of, respond to and through language). For me, saying white people can't dance has nothing to do with the typical answer that they don't have rhythm. ![]()
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