1970s
A Memoir
A01=Halifu Osumare
African American women
African-derived
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Arts Activism
Author_Halifu Osumare
Biography
Black and female in Europe
Black Arts Movement
Black Choreographers
Black Dance
black dance scene
Category=ATC
Category=ATQ
Category=DNBF1
Category=DNC
Category=JBSL
cultural activism
dance as politics
dance lecturer
dancers
Dancing in Blackness
dancing professionally
Diane McIntyre
Donald McKayle
Dr. Kwabena Nketia
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
European Nordic Region
Ghana
Halifu Osumare
Jazz Ballet
Katherine Dunham
Katherine Dunham Technique
Lincoln Center
Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts
Multicultural Arts Movement
New York
Ntozake Shange
Oakland Bay Area
Post-Civil Rights Era
Race
Rod Rodgers
Rod Rodgers Dance Co.
S.F. Bay Area
San Francisco State University
Stanford University
the late 60s
vernacular and concert dance
West Africa
writing dancing
Product details
- ISBN 9780813064321
- Weight: 618g
- Dimensions: 155 x 233mm
- Publication Date: 26 Mar 2019
- Publisher: University Press of Florida
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Dancing in Blackness is a professional dancer's personal journey over four decades, across three continents and 23 countries, and through defining moments in the story of black dance in America. In this memoir, Halifu Osumare reflects on what blackness and dance have meant to her life and international career. Osumare's story begins in 1960s San Francisco amid the Black Arts Movement, black militancy, and hippie counterculture. It was there, she says, that she chose dance as her own revolutionary statement. Osumare describes her experiences as a young black dancer in Europe teaching ""jazz ballet"" and establishing her own dance company in Copenhagen. Moving to New York City, she danced with the Rod Rodgers Dance Company and took part in integrating the programs at the Lincoln Center. After doing dance fieldwork in Ghana, Osumare returned to California and helped develop Oakland’s black dance scene. Osumare introduces readers to some of the major artistic movers and shakers she collaborated with throughout her career, including Katherine Dunham, Pearl Primus, Jean-Leon Destine, Alvin Ailey, and Donald McKayle.
Now a black studies scholar, Osumare uses her extraordinary experiences to reveal the overlooked ways that dance has been a vital tool in the black struggle for recognition, justice, and self-empowerment. Her memoir is the inspiring story of an accomplished dance artist who has boldly developed and proclaimed her identity as a black woman.
Now a black studies scholar, Osumare uses her extraordinary experiences to reveal the overlooked ways that dance has been a vital tool in the black struggle for recognition, justice, and self-empowerment. Her memoir is the inspiring story of an accomplished dance artist who has boldly developed and proclaimed her identity as a black woman.
Halifu Osumare, professor emerita of African American and African Studies at the University of California, Davis, is the author of The Hiplife in Ghana: West African Indigenization of Hip-Hop.
