Black Dance History & Milestones
This 1920s dance craze emerged from Black communities and became a symbol of the Jazz Age.
What is the Charleston?
This dancer became the first African American woman promoted to principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre in 2015.
Who is Misty Copeland?
This dance style originated in the South Bronx in the 1970s as a creative outlet for Black and Caribbean youth.
What is Hip Hop?
This dancer refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States.
Who is Josephine Baker?
Dancing releases these chemicals that boost mood and reduce stress.
What are endorphins and dopamine?
This all-Black Broadway show helped popularize Black dance styles with white audiences in the 1920s.
What is Shuffle Along?
She became the first Black woman to receive a contract with a major ballet company in 1955.
Who is Raven Wilkinson?
This dance form blends West African percussive movement with Irish and British clog dancing.
What is Tap dance?
During slavery, enslaved Africans were often forbidden to dance unless forced to entertain whom?
Who were slaveholders and Europeans?
Dance can reduce levels of this stress hormone in the body.
What is cortisol?
In 1931, this pioneering Black ballet company was founded by Katherine Dunham and Mark Turbyfill.
What is Ballet Nègre?
This choreographer premiered Revelations in 1960, one of the most performed modern dance works in history.
Who is Alvin Ailey?
This jazz dance hub in New Orleans was a historic gathering place for enslaved Africans.
What is Congo Square?
Rhythmic footwork performed during forced entertainment on slave ships helped inspire this dance form.
What is Tap dance?
This part of the brain linked to memory has been shown to increase in volume through dance.
What is the hippocampus?
This 1943 musical film showcased legendary tap dancers like the Nicholas Brothers and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.
What is Stormy Weather?
This tap dancer helped bring tap back into mainstream popularity during the 1980s.
Who is Gregory Hines?
This Harlem ballroom helped popularize the Lindy Hop during the Harlem Renaissance.
What is the Savoy Ballroom?
This dance institution was founded to create opportunities for Black ballet dancers excluded from white companies.
What is the Dance Theatre of Harlem?
Dance Movement Therapy is linked to reduced symptoms of these two mental health conditions.
What are anxiety and depression?
He became the first Black dancer in New York City Ballet and later co-founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Who is Arthur Mitchell?
This dancer and anthropologist infused African and Caribbean movement into modern dance technique.
Who is Katherine Dunham?
This early Hip Hop pioneer’s DJ techniques helped spark breaking, or b-boying.
Who is DJ Kool Herc?
The Harlem Renaissance transformed dance into a symbol of what cultural movement?
What is Black cultural pride and artistic resistance?
Beyond physical fitness, dance has historically functioned as what in many cultures?
What is a healing and communal practice?