Synopses & Reviews
This unique study focuses on the social, racial, and artistic climate for African American performers working during the swing era—roughly the late 1920s through the 1940s. The career of Norton and Margot, a ballroom dance team whose work was thwarted by the racial tenets of the era, serves as a tour guide and barometer of the times on this excursion through the worlds of African American vaudeville, separate black and white Americas, the European touring circuit, and pre-Civil Rights era racial etiquette.
Review
“Here is a ... scholarship possessing funk, rigor and style...It is as sensuous as the artists she describes, employs a zigzagging, swinging approach to her topic and provides a useful guide in our ongoing struggle against the sands of invisibalisation.” —Bill T. Jones, choreographer
“...a rare and gifted writer, a gem of a cultural portraitist...she teaches us all how to write about dance, the cool and the hot, mind and motion, making it clear how black dance centers self-realization and the moral education of the world.” —Robert Farris Thompson, Trumbull Professor of the History of Art, Yale University
“With insight and honesty, the author reveals careers limited by racial oppression in the pre-Civil Rights-era US.” —Choice
“During the 1930s and 1940s, the African American vaudeville team of Norton and Margot danced gracefully in a country scarred by segregation. Their frustrations and satisfactions, emblematic of the lives of so many African American artists in their time, are chronicle with lyrical insight in Brenda Dixon Gottschild's Waltzing in the Dark.” —Journal of American History
Review
“... a close, intelligent look at a long 'invisibilized' piece of black cultural history.” —
Publishers Weekly“. . . [a] significant contribution. . . . This work points up the power of the black dancing body to influence American culture.” —Philadelphia Dance Alliance
“...another significant contribution to the fields of dance, cultural and performance studies” —Dance Critics Association Newsletter
Synopsis
This unique study focuses on the social, racial, and artistic climate for African American performers working during the swing era -- roughly the late 1920s through the 1940s.
Synopsis
The career of Norton and Margot, a ballroom dance team whose work was thwarted by the racial tenets of the era, serves as the barometer of the times and acts as the tour guide on this excursion through the worlds of African American vaudeville, black and white America during the swing era, the European touring circuit, and pre-Civil Rights era racial etiquette.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [253]-259) and index.
About the Author
Brenda Dixon Gottschild is Professor Emerita of dance studies at Temple University. She writes for
Dance Magazine and performs with her husband, Hellmut Gottschild.
Table of Contents
Foreword *
Part I * The Race Trope in Swing Era Performance From Marjorie to Margot * “You Didnt Go Downtown—Everything Was Uptown”: Harlem, U.S.A. * Whos Got His Own: Black Creativity as Commodity *
Part II * Color and Caste in Black and White: Performing at Home and Abroad *
Part III * Coda to a Dream Deferred * Legacy: All That Jazz * Chronology: Margot Webbs Professional Career