under our skin: African retentions in the Black atlantic
by Ronya-Lee LaVaune Anderson, MDiv, MFA, PhD
key terms
(Unique to my research)
retentions
Dixon Gottschild invites us to think about how Africanist retentions are infused into and arguably drive so-called “American” art and culture. (Builds on Hurston)
-
The collective church, club, and stage that make up a zone of theatrical world-making, discovery and affirmation.
Privileges sound and movement always intertwined.
-
Communal embodied knowledge always pulling from the past while moving in the present and gesturing towards the future. Assumes bodies hold knowledge about movement and that knowledge is transmitted across time and space.
“There seems to be a general assumption on the part of Europeanist culture that African visual arts, music and dance are raw materials that are improved upon and elevated when they are appropriated and finessed by European artists.”
-Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Digging
-
Participants are arranged in a circle and in real time dancers enter the circle to make danced offerings that not only hold present knowledge, but also function as an embodiment of past knowledges. The cypher traverses time and space.
-
Antiphony or the practice of a leader making an offering and the people, congregation, or following making an offering in return
“Ago-Ame.”
“The Lord be with you- And also with you.”
“When I say Black you say culture.”
-
The interconnected concept of movement and sound within Black life (Ashon Crawley)
What is your dance heritage?
Share your prior knowledge.
Teaching as a calling.
Who do you bring to the space with you? teachers, ancestors, movement partners
