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Using history in dance classes
By dogpossum On 18th February, 2013 · Leave a Comment · In history, learning, lindy hop and other dances, research, teaching
I’m very interested in discussions about history and historical research. I’ve written about a million billion times before (this post ‘Try To Write About Jazz’ sums up some of my thinking). One of the things I’m most interested in is the way dancers use history. We do a lot of things with historical narrative [...]
Gendering dance talk
By dogpossum On 7th February, 2013 · 4 Comments · In academia, learning, lindy hop and other dances, menz, research, teaching, wimminz
My MA used lots of discourse analysis theory, which looks at the way language and words are used in written texts. I’ve also done some spoken discourse analysis work (which isn’t the same as linguistics, though there’s some crossover). I’ve been fascinated by the way spoken discourse analysis theory works in an online environment, where [...]
This is such a fabulous project. Lisa Congdon and Maria Popova are creating the Reconstructionists:
The Reconstructionists, a collaboration between illustrator Lisa Congdon and writer Maria Popova, is a yearlong celebration of remarkable women — beloved artists, writers, and scientists, as well as notable unsung heroes — who have changed the way we define [...]
Joann Kealiinohomoku and ballet as ethnic dance
By dogpossum On 16th October, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In learning, lindy hop and other dances, research
One of the most important articles I’ve ever read is “An Anthropologist Looks at Ballet as a Form of Ethnic Dance” by Joann Kealiinohomoku (What Is Dance? Readings in Theory and Criticism Eds. Roger Copeland and Marshall Cohen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983. 533 – 49). You can read the article here but I’ll [...]
blackface
By dogpossum On 8th August, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In history, lindy hop and other dances, research
blackface.com is a useful resource for people who’re into African American dance and music of the early 20th Century (ie, us).
If you’re thinking about using some characters from 1930s or 40s films for your choreography, you may want to read up and avoid offending folk and looking like an [...]
This Jazzwax post “Coleman Hawkins: 1922-1947” is an interesting complement to the Mosaic Coleman Hawkins set and to the idea of Anthologies or collections of individual works as a creative product in its own right (as I began discussing in my post “More thoughts, also illness-addled and pseudoephedrine-fuelled.“).
I’m also interested in [...]
A critical discussion of the New Orleans jazz revival movement in the US and in Australia (ie not just some awful ‘jazz journalism’ style ‘history’, but an actual engagement with the politics and ideology of these projects A critical engagement with the Folkways and Lomax projects (particularly stuff on the New Deal projects) A critical [...]
A snot-addled, animated wander through San Francisco
By dogpossum On 26th June, 2012 · 2 Comments · In history, lindy hop and other dances, music, research
Forgive the messiness of this article, please. I have a rubbish cold and I’m trying to string thoughts together, and not doing so well. But I want to wack down these ideas now before I forget. They’re not properly researched, and I apologise for that. This post has also suddenly changed tack, and goes a [...]
want play music
By dogpossum On 5th June, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In blues, djing, lindy hop and other dances, music, research
(John Lee Hooker, 1951, photo by Clemens Kalischer, found on Chasing Light)
[I'm DJing at the Jook Joint on Thursday. It won't be like this. Bedlam Bar, 2 Glebe Point Rd, social dancing starts 8.30.]
The ordinaryness of the everyday and blues dance
By dogpossum On 2nd June, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In academia, learning, learning, lindy hop and other dances, research, same sex dancing, teaching, thesis
In a post on FB, Chris asks
Charm’s Question of the 1st of June:
Blues dance draws from a rich cultural well, a constant evolution of the dance and rapid socio-economic changes.
What elements of vintage Blues dance culture (sordid and scandalous though they may be) need to be incorporated into the [...]
