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Joan Myers Brown & the audacious hope of the black ballerina
Joan Myers Brown and the audacious hope of the black ballerina
xxx, 340 pages, 41 unnumbered pages of plates (1 folded) : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm.
Founder of the Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO) and the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts, Joan Myers Brown's personal and professional histories reflect both the hardships and the accomplishments of African Americans in the artistic and social developments through the twentieth century and into the new millennium. Dixon Gottschild deftly uses Brown's career as the fulcrum to leverage an exploration of the connection between performance, society, and race, beginning with Brown's predecessors in the 1920s, and a concert dance tradition that has had no previous voice to tell its story from the inside out. Augmented by interviews with a score of dance professionals, including Billy Wilson, Gene Hill Sagan, Rennie Harris, Milton Myers, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and Ronald K. Brown, Joan Myers Brown's background and richly contoured biography are object lessons in surviva, a true American narrative.
1. The backdrop : 1920s-1940s -- Introduction and background -- Early black Philadelphia dance schools -- Essie Marie Dorsey -- Sydney King and Marion Cuyjet -- Joan Myers Brown : the early years -- 2. Spectacularly black on black : 1940s-1950s -- Color, caste, dance : and Philadelphia's black bourgeoisie -- Role of the white community : interaction and double standards -- The Sydney-Marion school, Judimar school, Sydney school, and trips to New York -- The annual Christmas cotillion -- Recitals and other performance opportunities -- Timing and survival : historical and professional -- 3. But black is beautiful! : 1950s-1980s -- From ballerina to "beige beaut" -- A school and a company -- 4. Nose to the grindstone, head to the stars : the Philadelphia/Philadanco aesthetic -- Rennie's ruminations : laying the foundation -- The Philly sound -- The Philadelphia/Philadanco dance aesthetic -- Embodying the aesthetic and issues of continuity -- 5. Audacious hope : the house that Joan built : 1980s-twenty-first century -- Ensemble dynamics/ keeping the standard/ touring/community outreach -- The Joshua generation -- The Moses generation -- Funding issues -- The where/why/how : race issues in contemporary practice -- Critical gaze/cultural contexting/community voices -- Afterword : Brenda Dixon Gottschild : a critical perspective.
Brenda Dixon Gottschild ; foreword by Robert Farris Thompson ; afterword by Ananya Chatterjea.
African Americans in the performing arts