Description
Book SynopsisThe first analysis of the development of the jook and other dance arenas in African-American culture
Trade Review"We glean just how rich the black dance tradition is from this vibrant, engaging social history, which hops from the decks of slave ships to honky-tonks, membership clubs and cabarets.... [It] takes us inside Reconstruction-era jook houses where food, gambling, drink and fellowship were offered, and where dances...crystallized into cultural forms."—
Publishers Weekly"An excellent study of black dance.... A well-done and readable account of how black Americans brought their dances with them from Africa, adapted them to the music of urban honky-tonks and jook joints, and created a unique art form."
—Jazztimes
"Here's a book I've longed for—historically rich, empirically inspired and, above all, reverent to the funk and drive and moral spirit of the Grand Atlantic Black Dance Tradition."
—Robert Farris ThompsonTable of Contents Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Dancing Under the Lash
The Middle Passage • The Plantation Environment • Bals du Cordon Bleu
2. Shoddy Confines: The Jook Continuum
The Great Transition • Jook Houses, Honky-Tonks, After-Hours Joints • Rent Parties, Chittlin' Struts, Blue Monday Affairs
3. Upper Shadies and Urban Politics
Monday Night at the Paradise Ballroom • Bells, Buzzers, and Air of Legitimacy • Night Clubs, Show Bars, Cabaret Parties • Dancin' in the Streets • Black Elite Affairs
Postscript
Notes
Index
