Alan Lomax and Forrestine Paulay discuss footage of various dance styles (part 2)
Audio file
Title: Alan Lomax and Forrestine Paulay discuss footage of various dance styles (part 2) Date recorded: July 15, 1995 Contributor(s): Contributor: Paulay, Forrestine; Contributor: Lomax, Alan Genre: interview/commentary
Note: White instructional tap dance film. Teacher intones: "Now, do everything just right." Feet are kept close to the floor, African style. In professional dancers the alternation goes through the whole leg. Amateurs look more like cloggers. Use of energy very close to foxtrot (NW European and Arctic), precise use of space. Emphatic stress mirrors stressed English speaking style. Forrestine Paulay comments on Double Dutch - its speed and incredible range of movement. In white style, the large muscles are used for holding. Twyla Tharp and the black influence on popular dances of the 1930s. The white social age doesn't touch the fantastic dances of Harlem or the Deep South. Bill Robinson dances with the precision of someone dealing cards at a poker table. The dance marathon is the image of a marriage where you hang on till the bitter end. Emphasis on endurance. Whites are over stimulated by blacks. Analysis of the dance in Les Blank's film about the polka. Rebound the most important characteristic. Miss Park's Company, 1971. Most are two-unit, pelvis and chest going the whole time, as each part of the central body is picked out for special attention. There are many kinds of vertical step and a non-territorial, playful approach to space. The Waddle, The Diddly Walk, and the Boogaloo, in which four or five girls in pantsuits with slits mimic moments of sexual ecstasy. Twist emphasizes sides and middle body, with crouches in an African dance pattern.
Location:
Archive ID: T7350b
Original format: Cassette Tape Tape number:T7350 Track: 2
About the session: A series of discussions between Alan Lomax and Forrestine Paulay regarding Choreometrics, various dance films, and movement techniques.
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