black and white

Yinka Shonibare MBE’s “Odile and Odette,” a 14 minute high-definition digital video, presents two dancers, one white and one black, in identical and gorgeous costumes (fuschia tutus and decorated pointe shoes) facing one another and performing the same gestures and steps (Kim Brandstrup is the choreographer). A gold frame separates the two women and suggests a mirror, making their actions appear like reflections. But what about their skin color?

The classical ballet “Swan Lake” juxtaposes a ballerina dressed in black (the evil one) and a ballerina in white (the sweet and pure one). The role is typically performed by the same dancer in different colored tutus. Shonibare’s project is brilliant because it exposes assumptions about who can be a dancer. A placard next to the screen showing the video at the National Museum of African Art says that the artist approached the Royal Opera House in London to find dancers for the project, but since the company had no black ballerinas, he had to search for an independent artist to fulfill his design.

The video was made in 2005.

What are these color codes in the dance world? Is it only ballet? What happens when a white sorority wins a national stepping competition in the USA? In February, Zeta Tau Alpha (sort of) won first place and $100,000 in scholarships at the Sprite Step-Off. In the pandemonium that followed, scores were “re-tallied” and Alpha Kappa Alpha, the black sorority previously in second place also won first place and $100,000 in scholarships. The competition airs on MTV2 today, March 7.

What is going on?

Ballet evolved out of the courts and palaces of the aristocracy and is more widely available today than it was when Judith Jamison, artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, started dancing. Jamison talks about her first dance teacher in the film “Beyond the Steps”: “Marion Cuyjet was a white-looking black woman with red hair and green eyes, and because Philadelphia was what it was – racially - at that time, black dancers had difficulty studying ballet. So Miss Marion, as we used to call her, would open doors for us [in 1950] before anyone knew that she was going to bring all these black children with her.”

When Arthur Mitchell opened a ballet school in Harlem, his birthplace, in 1969 he first used a garage, then the basement of a church, until eventually Dance Theatre of Harlem, a multicultural ballet company and school led by Mitchell were established. But New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, New York’s premier ballet companies, have never included a black principal ballerina.

Not surprisingly, Shonibare says in an interview on bombsite.com: “The main preoccupation within my art education was the construction of signs as outlined in Roland Barthes’s Mythologies…” It fascinates me that in “Odile and Odette” he suggests a mirror separates the two dancers: the world around us feeds our heads information about what has value, who we are and how we design our goals. Art and performance are places where possibilities become tangible.

Stepping is a performed ritual for most black fraternities and sororities. It can include pyrotechnic feats and acrobatic skills, as well as carry the particular themes and symbols of the fraternity or sorority. It communicates on multiple levels. It can be aggressive, raw, and intimidating.

The sorority that initially won the Sprite Step Off was precise, flexible, and coordinated. The Zeta team would have faired well at a “So You Think You Can Dance” event where points go to sleek and well-oiled machines. The Alpha Kappa Alpha’s tested their borders: they formed a row facing the audience, leaned forward and each woman placed her right leg on the back of the stepper next to her, as they continued banging out rhythms with their hands. When a dance form is made into sport, characteristics that can be counted – unison, timing, precision – take precedence over more subjective elements – creativity, spirit, commitment. Already the YouTube clips of the Zeta team have been hit by more than a half-million views, and bloggers have offered interesting analysis – especially here:

http://www.blogher.com/all-white-steppers-win-1st-place-black-community-uproar?from=promo

It is great that sororities across college campuses take an interest in learning stepping, maybe some day there will be a Benetton Step-Off and every college can compete. But what typically happens (thinking about everything from Swing dancers to Pat Boone and Vanilla Ice), a cultural idea created in one community is usurped by people with access to wider audiences or more opportunities, watered down, homogenized, made digestible for masses of people, and idiosyncrasies are smothered.

Frankie Manning – the man who made the air steps in Swing dancing during the 1930s – spent 30 years working for the post office until people realized this dance legend was in their midst and invited him to teach. The Sandra Cameron Dance Center (full disclosure – it was created by my aunt and uncle) in NYC invited the original Savoy dancers – Manning and Al Minns - to share their knowledge and instruction in the 1980s. In 1991 Spike Lee invited Manning to work on the dance scene for his film Malcolm X. I met and wrote about Manning before he passed away this summer. It is no coincidence that swing dancing enjoyed a huge resurgence in the last 20 years. His infectious joy inspired many people – from diverse backgrounds – to enjoy the rhythms and fun of swing. If we do not acknowledge or respect our cultural innovators, what happens to their ideas?

A question I encounter when dance is turned into sport: how can creativity and artistic expression be judged? If an art form values innovation, and innovators are often ahead of their time, do dance competitions curtail the emergence of fresh ideas?

Seeing the Yinka Shonibare MBE exhibit today renewed the idea that artists play an essential role in opening dialogue about difficult subjects. His sculpture, photographs, videos and paintings reveal our tangled history of economic and racial relations – and interdependencies -- as well as the role of artists as catalysts initiating conversations about ways of living together without smothering our differences. As Youssou N’Dour said: “People need to see that, far from being an obstacle, the world’s diversity of languages, religions and traditions is a great treasure, affording us precious opportunities to recognize ourselves in others.”