Unchecked Popularity: Neoliberal Circulations of Black Social Dance

Abstract

African American social dances are complex performances that tie social agency, communal exchange, individual creativity, and personal expression to practices that demonstrate vectors of gender, sexuality, ability, location, class, age, and place. These are dances that forward ideologies of corporeal orature—expressive body talking—as a productive means of group formation and social connectivity; they are embodied structures of playful musicality, understanding, and questioning cast in terms that involve active physical exploration (DeFrantz 2004). In local contexts of black communities, social dances function as essential agents of cultural expression, at once precious and freely available to those who engage their practice.