Blues Library
Blues has been a difficult dance to track down historically. Because of this, we are starting to collect information on videos, books, articles, etc.. on Blues Dancing.
- Charlie Fuller's amazon list
- Kelly Porter's amazon list
- Jookin': The Rise of Social Dance Formations in African-American Culture by Katrina Hazzard-Gordon
- Steppin' on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance (Folklore and Society) by Jacqui Malone
- Black Dance by Edward Thorpe
- Waltzing in the Dark : African American Vaudeville and Race Politics in the Swing Era by Brenda Dixon Gottschild
- African Dance: An Artistic, Historical and Philosophical Inquiry by Kariamu Welsh-Asante
- Black Dance: From 1619 to Today by Lynne Fauley Emery
- Black Dance in America: A History Through Its People by James Haskins
- Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts by Brenda Dixon Gottschild
(Focus on differences between African and European dance traditions and culture) - Hot Jazz and Jazz Dance : Roger Pryor Dodge: Collected Writings, 1929-1964 by Roger Pryor Dodge
(A compliation of essays on hot jazz and black dance written by critic and dance R.P. Dodge.) - A Bad Woman Feeling Good: Blues and the Women Who Sing Them Jackson, Buzzy
- Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop Lhamon, W. T., Jr.
- African-American dance in curricula: modes of inclusion. (Pathways to Aesthetic Literacy: Revealing Culture in the Dance Curriculum) : An article from: ... of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance [HTML] (Digital) by Kariamu Welsh Asante
- Modern Dance Negro Dance: Race in Motion by Susan Manning
- Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance by Marshall Winslow Stearns, Jean Stearns
"more couples danced the Slow Drag, each couple improvising their own variations." ~ page 153 - Black Dance: From 1619 to Today by Lynne Fauley Emery
- The Black Dancing Body: A Geography from Coon to Cool by Brenda Dixon Gottschild
- Dancing Many Drums: excavations in African American Dance, ed. Thomas DeFrantz, University of Wisconsin Press 2002
- Functions of African and American Negro secular dances: Parallel answers and research questions by Judith Lynne Hanna
- The Black Tradition in American Dance by Richard A. Long
- Stomping the Blues by Albert Murray
- From Cakewalks to Concert Halls: An Illustrated History of African American Popular Music from 1895 to 1930 by Thomas L. Morgan, William Barlow
Videos
Recommended by Heidi at:
http://www.blues-dance.com/bluesdanceproject/recommended/
- AMERICA DANCES! 1897-1948: A Collector's Edition of Social Dance in Film DVD (DVD)
- Deep Blues VHS (Jack Owens)
(not much dancing, but a great musical documentary (one short clip of two dancers at a muddy waters concert is amazing)) - Swingin' the Blues (with Erin Stevens, Tami Stevens and Scott Price of Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association (PBDA)
- The Spirit Moves, Part 1: Jazz Dance fom the Turn of the century to 1950 Dances include the Cakewalk, Charleston, Boogie-woogie, Shimmy, Susie-Q, Snake hips, Black bottom, Fish tail, Savoy Lindy Hop, Blues, Calypso, Applejack
- The Spirit Moves, Part 2: Savoy Ballroom of Harlem, 1950's - Vintage Blues - Ballrooming