The Minstrel Show pt.1: A Backdrop

Despite the efforts of many anthropologists, academics, artists and historians specializing in Afro-dance forms, in many senses, it is still difficult to engage in a discourse about Black dance and dancers. There are myriad of reasons for this.  One that cannot be discounted is that most people in the West are not as familiar with movement arts as they are with visual, theatrical or musical arts.  For most people, dance is seen as a companion to the latter two art forms, as merely entertainment, or as an elitist form that they have little access to.  As someone who is currently seeking out a graduate program that incorporates both academic and physical dance studies, I can attest to how difficult it is to enter into this space.  However, as with most things in America, what ever is true in general, is especially true in regards to Blackness.  With the rare exceptions of the premier Black dance companies and artists, Black dance is generally seen as abjectly anti-intellectual.  And one of the main reasons for this is the uniquely American context in which Black dancers were first seen--The Minstrel Show.

Due to Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Black bodies long been viewed as commodities in the West.  Initially, Black bodies were viewed solely as a means of field or domestic labor production.  As a result, during slave markets the enslaved were inspected and valued on how much money they would bring to their new masters.  As is such, the usefulness of Black bodies in slave holding spaces was based solely on how much the enslaved could perform.  However, in many non-slave holding Northeastern states, black bodies and cultural idioms were viewed with curiosity.  Concurrently, America was searching to create a cultural identity.  One in which both the common man and the gentleman were encompassed.  This was accomplished in the creation of a wildly popular and distinctly popular art form—The Minstrel show.  

Minstrel shows were comedic productions in which mostly white artists would paint their faces Black and perform songs and dances “authentic” to Black people.  These characters were universally portrayed as slow and dimwitted buffoons who existed for the sole purpose of entertaining their white audience.

And it was here at the Minstrel Show that the white audience found their common ground.  After the Revolutionary War, the common men in the rural parts of the country wanted to create a culture that rejected the pretentious European forms.  Instead, they favored literary characters whose ruggedness and humility were featured.  Davy Crockett was a favorite among this sort.  

 The rich wanted to expand upon European high culture.  During the 19^th century, as the country moved more and more into urbanization, these two groups found themselves increasingly at odds.  The gentleman class thought the common man uncouth; the common man though the elite snobby and untrustworthy.  What both sides could agree on, however, was that neither were like the singing and dancing coon that stood before them on stage during their beloved Minstrel Show.  They weren't buffoons and they weren't black.  As is such, by defining “Blackness” they were able to create a contrasting image to define themselves.  

If Black was slow and dimwitted, white was intellectual.  If Blackness lacked self-awareness, whiteness epitomized it.  If the Black body moved instinctively to rhythm much input from the mind of the dancer; then the white body moved with dignity and grace without the structure of European dances, folk, court, or concert.  As is such, the Black performing body was encased in a level of racism so deep that we are still struggling to get out of it.      




Depiction of popular characters during minstrel shows.