African American Dance: The Characteristics Of Modern Dance

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One of the elements that are appealing to the African American dancer is that it is performed barefoot because they wanted to feel the earth. Africans have always like the earth-bound movement. One of the characteristics of the dance of their ancestors is earth-bound feeling. And they also like to preform barefoot on bare foot. Therefore, it would be reasonable for African American to like modern dance because it has element that is similar to their culture.

Natural movements are also very attractive to African American dancers. Their free spirits were no longer imprisoned, and they could express themselves in whatever movements they felt like doing or even no movement at all. This element suits African Americans’ personalities very well. …show more content…
It does not value the cookie cutter dancers like ballet does. Modern dance stresses the uniqueness and individualism, therefore; differences are better. Since African Americans may have different level of pigmentation for their skin, they would not look exactly the same. It does not discriminate the different body types of African American dancers such as stronger thighs or curvy bodies.

Another very appealing factor is that modern dance is mostly an expression of the contemporary scene. At that time, most of the themes of modern dance are related to the struggle African Americans were facing. As African American dancers, I believe that being able to dance about their own struggle was a great way to release stress and express emotions. And it was easier for them to grasp the emotion involved in the dance movements since that was their really feeling most
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