Introduction
Welcome to the African American Plantation Dance Webquest! In this Webquest, you will have the opportunity to explore dances that were popular on plantations and to compare them to dances that are popular today. African Americans have always used instruments and body parts to create unique rhythms and movement patterns. Every dance that we see today is somehow influenced by the cultural dances that were performed on plantations.
African-Americans participate in a minstrel show.
African-Americans perform the popular Cakewalk dance.
Task
What were the popular dances on plantations and how were they created? My goal is to inform the Webquest explorer
about plantations and the ways they have influenced today’s movement styles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCsptiarrzw This video displays the Cakewalk dance which was created in 1863 on a plantation in Florida. African-Americans performed the Cakewalk at parties and get togethers. Also referred to as the "Chalkline-walk," the Cakewalk was danced on plantations, in musicals, and in minstrel shows. Some of it's most popular locations were Congo Square and Madison Square Garden.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQgrIcCtys0 This video shows an example of an African-American dance circle. During free time or in the evenings, slaves would form circles to show new dances and to learn rhythms that others created. Most of the dance steps are rhythmic and involve taking steps around the circle.
Process
This article tells the story of a slave in preparation for a great Easter feast and dance. There were several rules that the plantation patrol enforced for slaves to be invited to this event. The writer gives interesting details about the night of the dance. The women wore special, bright colored bandannas and dresses for dances and the fiddler played popular tunes to motivate the crowd to dance.
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/community/text2/plantationsteward.pdf
This site lists dances that were created in African and the West Indies and carried to the "New World." Black dance was used for religious, entertainment, and healing purposes. The Charleston and the Cakewalk were inspired by dances that were seen on plantations.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/h/history-of-black-dance-origins-of-black-dance/
A video that displays the cakewalk and partnering dances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCsptiarrzw
This site gives the reader background information about life on plantations and occassions where slaves would be allowed or forced to dance.
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/community/text2/text2read.htm
http://www.islandmix.com/backchat/f6/images-slave-life-de-americas-179884/index2.html
In addition to the image seen above, this site shows pictures of Africans dancing in Africa, the islands and many other locations.
Conclusion
Creating this Webquest was an interesting way to organize important information. This process gives students more freedom than writing an essay because they are able to share visuals, audio, and videos.
Credits
For further information regarding African-American plantation dances refer to the following sources:
http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3cake1.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cakewalk