Abstract
In this chapter, the appropriation of salsa, hip-hop, and the Lindy Hop are examined, as well as structures that maintain whiteness through systems of Dance Education in the United States. Counter-narratives are utilized to stand in opposition to historically inaccurate master stories such as the notion that ballet is the foundation of dance. These counter-narratives expose a history of cultural borrowing from under-resourced communities for capital gain, also described by Eric Lott (1995) as, “love and theft.” Critical Race Theory (CRT) is employed to orient readers to acute issues of ownership and race in the field of dance. Application of whiteness theory illuminates how systems of learning uphold an inequitable hegemony in dance. The various topics in dance explored in the text are woven together by the lived experiences of the author.
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Notes
- 1.
Dance Education is an established field of study in Higher Education. When referring to this field, I capitalize the term. When referring to the ways in which people learn to dance outside the academy (and thus are educated in dance) I do not capitalize the term.
- 2.
The terms African American and Black are used interchangeably in this text.
- 3.
Whitestream refers to widely accepted ideas, attitudes, and activities regarded as conventional, dominated by white people for the preservation of whiteness. Whitestream, as used in this chapter, delineates from the term whitestream feminism, coined by Sandy Grande (2003).
- 4.
Marley is a popular type of vinyl dance floor cover designed for Western-based dance forms.
- 5.
Among these few programs are The University of New Mexico (Flamenco); Denison University (African-based dance); Columbia College (West African-based dance); Arizona State University (urban movement practices); and Davis & Elkins College (American Vernacular Dance).
- 6.
For more information on the origins of salsa dance in the United States see, Juliet McMains, Spinning Mambo Into Salsa.
- 7.
I am using the word “text,” to describe a source of information. In the field of dance, the body is often used and regarded as text. Moreover, the body is a text for a dance class.
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McCarthy-Brown, N. (2018). Owners of Dance: How Dance Is Controlled and Whitewashed in the Teaching of Dance Forms. In: Kraehe, A., Gaztambide-Fernández, R., Carpenter II, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Race and the Arts in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65256-6_27
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