Talk:African American dance

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Portal	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Dance, which collaborates on Dance and related subjects. To participate, help improve this article or visit the project page for details on the project.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.

This article is part of Wikipedia:WikiProject African diaspora. This WikiProject aims to improve the quality of articles related to topics concerning persons of African descent and their cultures. If you would like to participate in the project, you can choose to edit this article, or visit the Wikipedia:WikiProject African diaspora for more information. (See: Category:WikiProject African diaspora for more pages in this project.)

PlainJane 04:14, 1 April 2006 (UTC) As you can see, this article is a work in progress, and this is the first 'draft'. I don't have time to do more work on this article now, so please point out errors/shortfalls, etc.

This article is intended as a discussion of the relationships between African American vernacular dances. My specialities are jazz and swing dances, but I know relatively little about contemporary African American vernacular dances. It wouldn't be too difficult to add information to this article using references from other wikipedia articles (so long as they have useful sources/references).

[edit] Priorities in intro

The first thing this article should do is state (at least roughly) what (an) African American vernacular dance is. Currently it begins by explaining what "vernacular" means in this context. That should come a little later. Just a suggestion. dbtfz^talk 07:50, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

PlainJane 08:32, 1 April 2006 (UTC) I think it's a little better now... ?

• Yes, that's better. dbtfz^talk 01:30, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vernacular is a linguistic term

Not a dance term. The origin of this term can be traced to events and organization revolving around swing dance in Harlem during the time Janice Wilson (swing dance instructor was around) was in New York. This term is not appropriate in describing dance. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Zenolee (talk • contribs) 17:10, 16 December 2006 (UTC). Insert non-formatted text here

Yes, the term 'vernacular' is used in linguistic literature, but it is also used in dance studies literature, referring to the 'everyday', 'ordinary' dance of a particular group of people or region. There are many, many articles and books using this term in reference to dance - some are listed at the bottom of this wikipedia article.

The term is, however, frequently a point of debate within contemporary swing dance culture and often critiqued because it apparently makes something 'simple' complicated. I would argue, though, that we draw on a combination of academic and 'ordinary' dance talk - perhaps a note signalling the fraught nature of the term. PlainJane 04:28, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Although I have no problem with our vernacular dance article, I think that using such a term in the title of an article about a specific tradition is overkill. Any text meant for a reasonably educated lay reader would just say "African American dance". See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names).--Pharos 01:03, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Agree that simpler title would be better & have moved article, will work in those articles linking to the redirect. Paul foord 01:32, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

I actually disagree - there are clear differences between 'African American dance' and 'African American vernacular dance' - the former is normally associated with ballet, contemporary dance and other performance dances, the latter with 'street dances'. The point is that vernacular dances are those which are, primarily, dances in community spaces and NOT on a stage. PlainJane 00:59, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Laypersons, i.e. persons without a learned appreciation of high culture dance, would definitely not first think of ballet when they think of "African American dance". Vernacular dance is just that, the colloquial. If we're to have an article on high art African American dance (African American dance theatre ?), then that should be the article with the diambiguating name.--Pharos 01:27, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Category:African American dances?

It seems there are enough dances in this tradition to justify a category, what thoughts are there on a title? Paul foord 02:30, 18 February 2007 (UTC)