The Black Dancing Body: An Artistic Measure as a Cultural Protest

Abstract

Dance has been a significant part of African Americans life; it helped them express their emotions as well as their thoughts and ideas, for that reason this dissertation attempts to study the role of African American Dance as a tool of cultural protest. It aims to explain the use of Black Dance as a way of Black cultural protest against the racial segregation in the United States. “Dancing in Blackness” is the selected narrative for the literary analysis in which the author Halifu Osumare points at the importance of this art form in the construction of identity and the performance of the Black heritage on stages by using physical expressions and dance moves. She illustrates the struggle of Black artists especially dancers for opposing the stereotypes and the racial laws using dance shows and choreographies that portray the pain of Black people who couldn’t use their voices to fight such cruelty at the same time to impose their African cultures and existence in the new world. Finally, it ends to create a strong link between arts and sociopolitical movements.