The Evolution And Impact Of Jazz Dance On The World

Blackface is a form of makeup used for theatrical purposes, predominantly used by non-black performers portraying a black person. Blackface was mainly used in minstrel shows, also known as minstrelsy, in which Americans would charge others to watch racial and discriminatory performances. Minstrel shows were developed in the early 19th century, and every show was composed of humoristic plays, skits, acts and other visual performances that are meant to mock and make fun of people of African-American descent. The shows were performed mainly by Caucasians using burnt cork as make-up for the purpose of trying to represent a black person. Minstrel shows portrayed black people as stupid, silly, lazy, and happy-go-lucky. Therefore, these shows were made by racist Caucasians that dehumanized African-Americans and made them seem like they were idiots in which they made profit from. Frederick Douglass once said that blackface performers were “…the filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied them by nature, in which to make money, and pander to the corrupt taste of their white fellow citizens.” The previous quote perfectly summarizes the whole concept of blackface.

     The music called Jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans. It combined elements of Ragtime, marching band music and Blues. What made Jazz such a different perspective of traditional music was its act of improvising. There was a widespread use of improvisation often by more than one player at a time. Songwriters would write the music down on a piece of paper, and then the Jazz musicians would try their best to play the music. Usually in a Jazz piece, musicians would use the song as a starting point to improvise around. Jazz musicians would play a familiar song to the audience, and by the time they were done with the piece they would stir up a totally different feeling away from the

appeared, and the 1870's, the minstrel show was one of the most popular forms of entertainment in America. White performers wearing burnt cork or black shoe polish on their faces assumed the roles of African American men and women. A typical minstrel show would have songs, dances, jokes and grand hoe-downs. The minstrel show tried to capture the "happy-go-lucky" slave that ate watermelon and shuffled about. However, this idea of the "happy slave" was very wrong. Since this was before the civil rights movement, African Americans were caricatured and often stereotyped as the lazy, shuffling,

Jazz has always been a part of the American tradition. Some may say they like Jazz for its rhythmic twist and turns. Others may love the soothing melodies from an improved Trumpet solo. All in all, Jazz has been an American staple and has molded today’s popular music, into what it is today. It’s very different from classical music, which is written out and strict. Jazz is much more. It’s made up of spontaneity and improvisation, which makes up an idea on the spot. There are many wide varieties in Jazz. There is Bebop Jazz, Avante Garde Jazz, Acid Jazz, Free Funk Jazz, Soul Jazz, Swing Jazz, and many, many more! These forms of Jazz can be seen and heard in some of your favorite music of Today. It’s been widely used by the world. There is an important reason as to why this genre contributes to the growing of music. We first take a look into the root of all Jazz. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the country of Africa was the first known country to use rhythm primarily for the element of musical expression, and ensembles composed entirely of percussion instruments created extended polyrhythmic works. These polyrhythms, which means the “layering of multiple rhythms.”, were record in Western music. African music did not use paper, or sheet music. Instead, they relied on Aural rituals, learned by ear and also used” spontaneity, which is later said to be known as improvisation”. In Africa, most of the music that was expressed was for religious

As we all may know slaves underwent a time when their humanity was taken from them when they came to the Americas. But even though their humanity was taken from them they still managed to carry on a tradition that still lives on. This tradition is dance. Over the years dance has developed and become more modern but it is still has the influence from African dance.

Blackface performances were popular in American theaters for roughly 100 years, beginning around the 1830’s. In 1950’s blackface minstrel shows, white and black performers were not able to share the stage therefore they opted to paint their faces black with polish. These “black” characters were always portrayed as either villains or comedic. Blackface had been used to make arguments for slavery and why African Americans should not be given full human rights. These are narratives created by white men that were made to oppress and dehumanize an entire race of people. The minstrel show clip titled “Cotton and Chick Watts Blackface Minstrel Show Comedy” we are shown a very degrading performance put on by two white

To begin with, jazz is an all American dance that has some African rhythmic influences. The first group that portrayed jazz to the American society were a group called the flappers in the 1920’s. This group was young western women who wore short skirts and bobbed hair and were considered wild based on the image

Minstrelsy is an American acting performance show, popular from the early 19th to the early 20th century, that was created on the amusing representation of racial stereotypes of African Americans. Minstrel performers were white males who painted their faces black and performed. Minstrelsy in America, started off as something humorous and quickly exploded into popularity, as a form of musical theater entertainment that depicted African Americans stereotypes, during the 19th and 20th century in a degrading way. Nevertheless, the portrayals of African Americans in minstrel performances were degrading and badly portrayed. Jim Crow became the main minstrel character in performances and a term for laws used to oppress African Americans in the year’s minstrelsy came

Minstrel shows mainly consisted of white people in black face, and after the civil war, it revolved around slaves in black face performing as well. These shows were widely racist; the show typically focused on the mockery of African people.

From live theater to cinema, from the banjo to hip-hop, from whites in blackface to blacks in blackface, America has imitated and exploited black and has since then not gone back. Many of the adjectives persistently used today to describe African Americans, “lazy, ignorant, buffoonish, superstitious, joyous, and musical” were the same words used to describe African Americans throughout the duration of the minstrel shows’ history centuries ago (“The Mammy Caricature”). Real-life black circumstances were satirized and exploited in musical theater, becoming known as ‘minstrelsy’; with its emergence in the 1820’s—and its continual rise after the Antebellum era—minstrelsy easily and quickly became the most popular form of American entertainment

Bert Williams was born on November 12, 1874, in Nassau, Bahamas. After his family faced some economic issues, they moved from California to the Bahamas in 1884 to for better economic opportunities. Living in California is where his fascination with performances began, mainly medicine shows and seeing the magicians, singers, dancers, etc. Williams worked in the genre of the blackface minstrel show, which was one of the key components of a longstanding attempt by white Americans to degrade Americans of African descent. This project involves discovering the significance Bert Williams had on performances during his era. The goal of this paper is to show how incredible of a performer Bert Williams was and how his performances left such a lasting impact to this day. I argue that Bert Williams utilized performance techniques that were identifiable to typical Broadway audiences of the late 1800s to create opportunities for African-American performers to succeed in show business in the United States. He did this by being a black body using dominantly white performance techniques to subversively make white audiences become used to seeing black bodies doing the same things white bodies do on stage. Williams changed the focused the plots of his performances to situations in which any member of the audience could relate to, no matter their race. Additionally, he proved that minstrelsy shows could feature songs about black characters without containing violent and horrific stereotypes. He used his heritage and platform to be a trailblazer in opening opportunities for African-Americans to succeed in show business in the United States.

The Complex Nature of Minstrelsy In 1828, a white stage performer named Thomas Dartmouth Rice became famous for his new song, “Jump Jim Crow,” which he performed in blackface as “Jim Crow,” a primitive, well-known black trickster character. Although Rice was not the first man to perform in blackface, he was the first to so overtly imitate and mock blacks. The “Jim Crow” routine inspired other performers to wear blackface and perform as caricatures of blacks in order to degrade them. Due to Rice, minstrelsy became the prominent American theatrical form.

The Evolution of Blackface: Minstrelsy in the 19th and 20th Century - Present Day Thesis: From society’s positive conception of its whimsical beginnings, to its rapid downfall from its overwhelming negative relationship with slavery and racism, blackface has been a prominent form of entertainment in the media for several centuries. Origin of Blackface/ How Blackface was Established in Minstrelsy (Who usually performed in blackface/ how performers acted while in blackface) (EXPLAIN WHAT MINSTREL SHOWS ARE COMPOSED OF)All it took was dark makeup (usually composed of burnt cork) on the face, and sometimes the lips were painted lighter as well in order to accentuate the black makeup. Blackface became popular in the United States through its use in minstrel shows; however, the act of blackening ones face was not an unusual act in America during slavery. Many performers have used blackface as a form of entertainment for a number of decades prior to its well-known introduction in minstrelsy.

Spectacles have always been a great means to convey the opinion of the majority to the public. For example, starting in the 1820’s white actors would blacken their face and act has black people in a comedy skit known as the minstrel shows. The “blackface” gimmick was first used by white people to enhance the racial stereotypes against black persons in order to limit their growing power in society. The white actors were soon replaced by black actors who inherited the white’s stereotypes and continued with them. The African-American community began to fight using art as their weapons they took up the industry of Jazz and Blues and battled the delusions of the white community.

The origins of jazz music and dance are found in the rhythms and movements brought to America by African slaves. The style of African dance is earthy; low, knees bent, pulsating body movements emphasized by body isolations and hand-clapping. As slaves forced into America, starting during the 1600’s, Africans from many cultures were cut off from their families, languages and