Dance as a Political Movement

Alvin Ailey

           Dance is not normally associated with themes of politics, economics or other areas of the world that can dissociate itself with feelings.  When one attends a theater production, he or she is usually attempting to escape from reality and witness magic on stage.  Yet, dance is much more complex than it appears.  Dance is a cultural movement and one can read dance and its physical movement as cultural artifacts.  If one views dance in an academic perspective, dance can be perceived to have a particular purpose, “a form of social organizer, reinforcing societal norms within the contexts of celebrations or mating rituals” (Cohen-Stratyner 121). 

Donald McKayle

Probing further, the creators of dance works are automatically incorporating their own cultural experiences of the time they are living in.  Thus, several years following the development of a piece he or she created, the choreography documents a historic time from the perspective of one person’s cultural understanding of the time period.  Not only does one need to understand the cultural issues and contestations of the time, but one should also approach the choreography as an emotional experience with relevance to the time it was created to add upon his or her own cultural understanding (Sklar 31).  

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Dance as Political Movement

                                                                                                       

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