Gottschild, Brenda Dixon - Waltzing in the Dark
(subtitle: African American Vaudeville and Race Politics in the Swing Era)
I looked for this after reading The Black Dancing Body, since I do lindy and wanted to know more about the history of lindy hop, particularly how cultural appropriation, cultural theft and racial politics play into it.
This book basically covers the swing era race politics, as you can tell from the handy subtitle. Dixon Gottschild defines the Swing Era as covering 1920-something to 1947; I can't remember the exact dates and I returned the books. She mentioned exactly what events she was using to bookmark it. I think 1947 was the closing of the Savoy Ballroom, and I don't remember the start date. I do know she makes it earlier than most people define the swing era to include the development of swing music in the 1920s. I checked Wikipedia, which has the dates from 1935-1946. Their start date is Benny Goodman's performance in the Palomar Ballroom, which they credit with "bringing the music to the rest of the country."
I think this issue of dates neatly sums up the problems Dixon Gottschild examines; black artists like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong were the ones who pioneered swing music and popularized it in the black community. Black dancers started the lindy hop. Dixon Gottschild makes a point of how the music and the dance reinforced and reinvigorated each other; the dancers would take cues from the band and the band would do the same. And yet, the date that gets pinpointed is the one in which a white artist performs and "introduces" the music to the "rest of the country," ignoring the fact that Ellington and Armstrong and etc. had been touring before him and assuming that "the rest of the country" meant "white people."
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Dixon Gottschild uses the career of ballroom dancer Margot Webb to illuminate racial politics in the time. Margot Webb and her partner danced waltz and did waltz interpretations. Webb was light enough to pass as white occasionally, though she never did, and her partner was often mistaken to be Spanish (acceptable and Continentally exotic). But because they identified themselves as black, they were paid less, booked less, booked as less popular places, not allowed to stay in hotels next to their bookings, shown off as spectacle, and etc. And because they weren't dancing a "black" dance (like lindy or tap), white people were even less interested in seeing them. "Dancing black" basically meant dancing fast and dancing sexy; the white audience were fine with the white appropriation of black dance, but not the black appropriation/adoption of white dance.
The other side to "dancing black" was that lindy hoppers and tap dancers in particular ended up dancing faster and faster to make it more difficult for white people to steal their moves. So it didn't matter what you danced; either you'd be unappreciated or you'd be appropriated from. Furthermore, when white people did take their moves, the white dancers were able to get better bookings, more pay and more publicity than the original dancers.
And I could go on, and on, and on. Dixon Gottschild talks about the centrality of Harlem to the swing era, the attempts of some black artists to escape racism by going to Europe (and still being the exotic Other there), the psychological cost of passing for black artists who wanted to be able to make more of a living, how black artists were hit worse when the popularity of swing began to die down, and always always always the theft. She mentions integration and the negative effect it had on the black community: while integration's intent was all well and good, because racism didn't disappear, it effectively killed off many black-centered theaters and locales as performers went to white theaters to try to get better pay, and it wasn't like dancers like Webb were getting many more jobs from white places. Instead, she just had to compete with white dancers even more. And did I mention the theft?
I read this slowly because it made me so angry. Pretty much everything you can think of was thrown to prevent black artists from succeeding, and then some; that some did is a testament to their skill and courage and persistence, not proof that the system worked.
I didn't get as much information on lindy hop as I wanted from this book. Lindy hop and swing music framed the era, but Dixon Gottschild looks more closely at Margot Webb's career and uses it as a jumping point to discuss the realities of a touring dancer's life. Not a fault of the book, as Dixon Gottschild covers the big lindy moments and introduces the Savoy and etc., but just a note that I'm still hungry to know more about the history of lindy hop.
Definitely recommended for anyone who wants a concrete example of cultural appropriation and theft in action, though with the caveat that this felt more subject-specific than The Black Dancing Body. I'm not as sure if it'll appeal as much to people who aren't interested in dance or swing music and jazz.
I looked for this after reading The Black Dancing Body, since I do lindy and wanted to know more about the history of lindy hop, particularly how cultural appropriation, cultural theft and racial politics play into it.
This book basically covers the swing era race politics, as you can tell from the handy subtitle. Dixon Gottschild defines the Swing Era as covering 1920-something to 1947; I can't remember the exact dates and I returned the books. She mentioned exactly what events she was using to bookmark it. I think 1947 was the closing of the Savoy Ballroom, and I don't remember the start date. I do know she makes it earlier than most people define the swing era to include the development of swing music in the 1920s. I checked Wikipedia, which has the dates from 1935-1946. Their start date is Benny Goodman's performance in the Palomar Ballroom, which they credit with "bringing the music to the rest of the country."
I think this issue of dates neatly sums up the problems Dixon Gottschild examines; black artists like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong were the ones who pioneered swing music and popularized it in the black community. Black dancers started the lindy hop. Dixon Gottschild makes a point of how the music and the dance reinforced and reinvigorated each other; the dancers would take cues from the band and the band would do the same. And yet, the date that gets pinpointed is the one in which a white artist performs and "introduces" the music to the "rest of the country," ignoring the fact that Ellington and Armstrong and etc. had been touring before him and assuming that "the rest of the country" meant "white people."
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Dixon Gottschild uses the career of ballroom dancer Margot Webb to illuminate racial politics in the time. Margot Webb and her partner danced waltz and did waltz interpretations. Webb was light enough to pass as white occasionally, though she never did, and her partner was often mistaken to be Spanish (acceptable and Continentally exotic). But because they identified themselves as black, they were paid less, booked less, booked as less popular places, not allowed to stay in hotels next to their bookings, shown off as spectacle, and etc. And because they weren't dancing a "black" dance (like lindy or tap), white people were even less interested in seeing them. "Dancing black" basically meant dancing fast and dancing sexy; the white audience were fine with the white appropriation of black dance, but not the black appropriation/adoption of white dance.
The other side to "dancing black" was that lindy hoppers and tap dancers in particular ended up dancing faster and faster to make it more difficult for white people to steal their moves. So it didn't matter what you danced; either you'd be unappreciated or you'd be appropriated from. Furthermore, when white people did take their moves, the white dancers were able to get better bookings, more pay and more publicity than the original dancers.
And I could go on, and on, and on. Dixon Gottschild talks about the centrality of Harlem to the swing era, the attempts of some black artists to escape racism by going to Europe (and still being the exotic Other there), the psychological cost of passing for black artists who wanted to be able to make more of a living, how black artists were hit worse when the popularity of swing began to die down, and always always always the theft. She mentions integration and the negative effect it had on the black community: while integration's intent was all well and good, because racism didn't disappear, it effectively killed off many black-centered theaters and locales as performers went to white theaters to try to get better pay, and it wasn't like dancers like Webb were getting many more jobs from white places. Instead, she just had to compete with white dancers even more. And did I mention the theft?
I read this slowly because it made me so angry. Pretty much everything you can think of was thrown to prevent black artists from succeeding, and then some; that some did is a testament to their skill and courage and persistence, not proof that the system worked.
I didn't get as much information on lindy hop as I wanted from this book. Lindy hop and swing music framed the era, but Dixon Gottschild looks more closely at Margot Webb's career and uses it as a jumping point to discuss the realities of a touring dancer's life. Not a fault of the book, as Dixon Gottschild covers the big lindy moments and introduces the Savoy and etc., but just a note that I'm still hungry to know more about the history of lindy hop.
Definitely recommended for anyone who wants a concrete example of cultural appropriation and theft in action, though with the caveat that this felt more subject-specific than The Black Dancing Body. I'm not as sure if it'll appeal as much to people who aren't interested in dance or swing music and jazz.