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Showing posts with label tap dance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tap dance. Show all posts

Monday, April 29, 2024

Some People Say That Stephen A. Smith Is A "Buck Dancer": Comments From Various YouTube Podcasts About Stephen A. Smith's Appearance On The Sean Hannity Show & His Subsequent Apologies


Roland S. Martin, April 19, 2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered #BlackStarNetwork #BringTheFunk

Roland Martin deconstructs Stephen A. Smith talking Trump on Fox News' Hannity.

****
Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision - April 30, 2024

This is the third post in a three part pancocojams series about the African American disparaging definition of "buck dancing" and tap dancing.

This post showcases a podcast reaction video about sports celebrity's Stephen A Smith's April 18,2024 comments on Fox News' Sean Hannity's show. 

This post also presents selected comments from the discussion thread of that podcast and from a six other African American podcasts. The African American host/s of these podcasts address Stephen A. Smith's appearance on Sean Hannity's show and his (Smith's) subsequent apology videos. Most of these comments include references to the African American disparaging meaning or connotation of the term "buck dance", "tap dance", or "shuckin and jivin".
  
Click 
 https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/04/why-african-americans-equate-tap.html "Why African Americans Equate Tap Dancing With Shuckin' And Jivin' & "Uncle Tomming" for the first post in that series. 

Click for the second post in that pancocojams series.

The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to all those whose podcasts associated with the YouTube podcasts that are embedded or linked in this post.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
This pancocojams post and Part III of this pancocojams series document a small sample of the numerous online negative comments from African Americans about African American sports commenter Stephen A Smith. My focus in these post is to document a small sample of comments that use the disparaging meanings of buck dancing or tap dancing which allude to or directly use those dance terms as metaphors for acting like a clown, acting like a fool, and/or shuckin and jivin, and/or "tomming".

Except for parts of these selected comments, neither of these two pancocojams posts present the reasons why commenters pictured or referred to Stephen A. Smith negatively as a "buck dancer" or as a "tap dancer". People who are interested in learning more about some of the reasons why so many African Americans commenters have such negative opinions about Steven A Smith are encouraged to view these showcased videos and read their discussion threads.

That said, for the record, among other things, I strongly agree with the many commenters in 2024 who lambasted Stephen A Smith for his comments comparing Trump problems with the United States criminal justice system and African Americans' treatment by the United States criminal justice system. 

****
SELECTED COMMENTS FROM VARIOUS AFRICAN AMERICAN PODCAST
This pancocojams post documents the use by African Americans of disparaging meanings of "buck dancing", "tap dancing", and "shuckin and jivin" for historical and cultural purposes. As it happens, the viral nature of the Stephen A Smith's recent controversy provides multiple online examples of the disparaging meanings of these words.
   
These are only a small sample of comments from six African American podcasts/vlogs on YouTube that have been published since April 18, 2024 about Stephen A Smith's comments on the Sean Hannity show and his subsequent apologies about those comments. To say that this subject has gone viral on the internet among many African Americans would be an understatement. Most of the discussion threads for these videos include disparaging references to Stephen A. Smith buck dancing or negatively refer to him as a buck dancer or tap dancer, or shuckin and jivin. 

The links to the six YouTube sources for these selected comments are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only. Based on their African American hosts and their focus on African American cultural issues, my assumption is that most of the commenters in the discussion threads for these videos are African Americans.

All of these comments were published on YouTube between April 18, 2024 and April 28, 2024.

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VIDEO SOURCE #1
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQxCbhq2kzc

1. @Chris-po8if
"SAS BEEN Buck dancing since he came on the scene. I can't believe people are just realizing it."

**
2. 
@missa7562
"his shucking and jiving for his friend sean hannity cost him our respect."

**
3. @yennev
"Steven A Smith bugging his eyes out , Bobbing His head and Neck , Tooting out His Lips. May work on your Sports Station.! That doesn't work outside of sports.! Not a good look.!

Chucking ,Jiving , Handkerchief Head Wearing

With your LoGo behind you getting free advertising on FOXNEWS.. Sean Laughing at you. Bad look you can't take back.!"

**
4. @55YoLefty
"Add SAS 2 the list of buck dancin', "yes massah", step n fetchin' ninjas.  He said what he said.  He should've stood on it.  Shame on him.  It was already hard 4 me 2 watch him on ESPN's basketball coverage.  I'll never watch that dude again."

**
Reply
5. @herminaedwards5242
"Good for you! Let the buck dancers dance by themselves, no props from the real black people!"

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VIDEO SOURCE #2
From 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK_SODSVetA&t=7s [This is the video that is embedded in this post.]

1. @Marie70272
"Stephen A Smith is a step- n- fetch it ..Roland broke it down for Mr. Step-N-Fetch it. Thank you Ro.

Stephen A. Smith is nothing but a “ talking head”..nothing significant comes out of his pie hole”

**
2. @Async45
"He knows what he was doing"

**
Reply
3. @zeezee-6
"@Async45 Yep, tap dancing for some bags"
-snip-
“Bags” here means “money”.

**
4. @greatday1752
"Clowning for the GOP...HE DRANK THE KOOL AID!!!"

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VIDEO SOURCE #3
From 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLT2xx2L6zA

1.
@Godfather-rn6rb
"
Excellent narrative CoachD! Stephen A has long been an overpaid lip smacking Minstrel Act buffoon used for Entertaining WS."

**
2. 
@micheleadamson9867
"
Its not that he doesn't get it, he doesn't want to get it because he enjoys being a Bojangles.*"

*This is a disparaging referent for an African American tap dancer. '
Bill Robinson (1877–1949), a well respected [African ]American dancer and actor, known as "Bojangles" 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Robinson

**
3. 
@titusnixon
"
When they get a head scratching, We sick boss Buffoon, they get a real one. Stephen Smith is the buck dancing champion, he’s out buck dance Jason Fatlock*. Isn’t it funny how these two buck dancers can’t stand each other. That because they both want to be that go to Ninza** that the racist can point to as their friend"
-snip-
*This is probably a purposely putdown of Jason Whitlock’s last name. Jason Whitlock is an African American conservative who Stephen A. Smith has argued with and criticized on Smith's ESPN series.   

** "Ninza" is an accidental or purposely respelled form of the word "ninja". Since at least 2003, the word "ninja" has been a substitute in the United States for the "n word". Read the 2012 article entitled "Ninja: A Short History of a Less Troublesome Word" 
https://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/ninja-a-short-history-of-a-less-troublesome-word/  by by Alex Pappademas for information about what that author believes is the earliest use of this custom. 

**

4. @ronaldrheinhardt3679
"Stephen A and Whitlock are racing to get into Uncle Tom’s Cabin where Justice Thomas has doors locked."

**
5. 
MelvinHouston-ir2vj
"I lost all my respect for Stephen fetchit"

**
6. 
 @granvellhill2616
"Roland Martin crushed SAS and his nonsense as hard as the coach just did!!! SAS doesn't represent the black community he's too busy tap dancing for fox & hannity smh!!!"

**
7. 
@benniegossett9006
"the tap dancer has always been a shoe shiner'

**
9. 
@vallen9879
"Stephen A. Smith a Hit Dog Will Always Holla  keep barking and dancing"

**
10. @willkeeping1800
"Stevie boy a is just trying to show his masters that he is behind them and for them buck dancing just stay in sports and not in politics boy"

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VIDEO SOURCE #4
From 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv5oBscQN3c

1. @justtubing767
"Just go on and tap dance outside a Popeye's, Stephen."
-snip-
"Popeyes" is a brand of fast food restaurants that specializes in fried chicken. "Fried chicken" is considered to be a stereotypical "soul food" (African American) dish.

**
2. 
@rafaelwinston1458
"Tap dancer!"

 **
3. 
@nonofyourbusiness7816
"Keep dancing sas maybe you'll find someone who believes you."

 **
4. 
@TheFragranceDressier
"88 accounts that’s all need to be said and people just ignore it amazing, this guy need to stop tap dancing about the polls. The polls also said in 2016 Hillary Clinton was up substantial and look what happened stop it stop it please."

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VIDEO SOURCE #5
From 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAhf7sdh6P4

1.@sharon4094
"No, your words were not taken out of context. I heard you and I was so sickened by you [emoji of pale red face] I could hardly breathe [emoji of sick face]  So own up to your words because nothing you said was taken out of context. You went all in. You went there, tap dancing shoes and all SAS.  You embarrassed yourself and made us look gullible and stupid. But, hey, MAGA loved it. Just look at how the far-right is praising you. I'm sure you got some new viewers out of it."

**
2. 
@jeffgulley3261
"That ain't what black people was mad about we were mad because you compared black prosecution in  American to Trump legal battles.  But you what you was doing dance boy dance"

**
3. 
@WokeOne75
"Are those tap shoes tight yet?"

**
Reply
4. @DontH8DaPlayaH8DaGame
"He's wearing trumps golden sneakers"

**
5. 
@Bdatoolman
"You are forever a sellout Stephen A keep buck dancing for the mouse you're now dismissed forever"
-snip-
"The 
mouse" is a referent for Disney. The "First Take" series that Stephen A. Smith hosts is on ESPN and ESPN is a part of Disney.

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjOaHrMY0-w

1. 
@michaelcostello1485
"Stephen was on Fox and he was buck dancing for that audience. He's a [emoji of a clown]."

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #7
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFuQaiD5cy8

1. 
@thecrow7483
"If you look closely, Stephen A is wearing a pair of gold tap dancing shoes"

**
Reply
2. @virgilkennedy6692
"Gold tap dancing shoes ! [followed by multiple laughing emojis and multiple clown emojis] SAS IS A CLOWN SHOW."

**
3. @ronaldmccall159
"Sir Steven A has been buck dancing a long time for Masser."

**
4. @BLACK7MA
"Steven A is a buck dancing Bo Jangle sell out. let's just be honest."

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This concludes Part III of this  three part pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Why Some African Americans Nowadays Equate Tap Dancing With Shuckin' And Jivin' & "Uncle Tomming


The Tap Love Tour, Oct 8, 2020

I'm a black man making thousands of dollars a year tap dancing.  Does that make me an Uncle Tom?

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Edited by Azizi Powell

Lastest edition - November 12, 2024

This is the first post in a three part pancocojams series about the African American disparaging definitions of "buck dancing" and "tap dancing".

This post showcases a 2020 YouTube video entitled "Shuckin' n Jivin' n Tap Dancin" and presents the auto-generated transcript for that video. 

This post also includes some definitions for "buck dancing", "shuckin and jivin", and "tomming".  

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-negative-use-of-term-buck-dancing.html for the second post in this series. The title of that post is "The Disparaging Meaning Of The Term "Buck Dancing" In A 2021 Mo Spears Produced Cartoon Video of That Features Images Of Stephen A Smith." 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/04/stephen-smith-called-buck-dancer.html for the third post in this pancocojams series. The title of that post is "Stephen A. Smith Called A "Buck Dancer": Comments From Various YouTube Podcasts About Stephen A. Smith's Appearance On The Sean Hannity Show & His Subsequent Apologies".

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and educational purposes.

Thanks to the legacies of past and present African American tap dancers. Thanks also to all those who are associated with this video.

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TRANSCRIPT FOR THIS EMBEDDED VIDEO
Pancocojams Editor's Note- This is my unofficial corrections of the auto-generated transcript in English and my unofficial corrections the captions that appear on that video screen.  This transcript includes changes in words and spelling as well as the addition of punctuation.

Additions and corrections are welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id2GeDaLxiE Shuckin' n Jivin' n Tap Dancin'

[narrator] "My name is Travis Knights and I love to tap dance."


[video clip of Angela Rye and Charlamagne Tha God, 2017, sourced from The Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM on YouTube]

Angela Rye-“Oh shout out to the dancers."

Charlamagne Tha God-"I ain't never in my goddamn life. I ain't never had to dance for no White man and my motherf’in life. When you say ”tap dance” to a Black man…

Angela Rye- He’s right. I just took him to a post traumatic stressful place. I apologize”…

[narrator] "Black people of a certain age do not like tap dance."

[video clip of Malcolm X, 1962 speech, sourced from YouTube] “Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet.”

[narrator] "That is the question at the heart of the problem with the perception of tap dance in the black community. A critical mass of black people who lived in Canada and the United states during the non-violent movement and the Black power movement of the 50s 60s and 70s do not like tap dance. Iin fact, they loathe it.  And they have raised their kids to have that same level of disdain." 

[video clip of Karen Hunter,2020, sourced from the Karen Hunter Show on YouTube] -“I was so disgusted that so many of us don't realize how much power how much sway we have to control not just our own destiny but the destiny of the entire world.”

[Black man] - That’s right.

[Karen Hunter] – and we’ve got to, we’ve got to step into this purpose. No more placating, we ain’t got to tap dance We don’t got to shuck and jive, change our hair, our vernacular, anything. We got everything”.

Narrator- “They perceive it as demeaning. They perceive it as the ultimate metaphor for an Uncle Tom sellout."

[video clip of Jacob Black, Sr, 2020 speaking at outdoor protest rally for Breonna Taylor, sourced from the Hill, YouTube] - “Did you say her name? Don’t come bringin us that shucking and jiving stuff. Nobody’s nobody’s ready for that. We're tired of that. Don't shuck and jiving and bojangles your way across the street”.

[narrator] "He's right.  Tap dance was a key feature in minstrel shows for  over 100 years.  These blackface minstrel shows acted as propaganda that sold the public on the idea that black people were only three-fifths human and we’re still haunted by the ideas that stem from minstrelsy today.

That's not the end of the story though.  Tap dance has always been an African-American art form.  Check this: After the Stone rebellion in 1739 the colonizing slaveholders banned the use of the African drum because it was understood that the Africans were communicating across plantations  with them.  Now without the drums those rhythms were transferred to the feet.  That rhythmic expression called “buck dancing” was the precursor to tap dance,” That rhythmic expression was our link to roots that the colonial human traffickers of the time tried to sever.  The expression of the dance in black spaces helped to form a highly kinetic folk culture. In the post-emancipation era the folk music that was developed in that culture is jazz.

[video clip of Max Roach Interview, sourced from “The Post Archives, on YouTube”] "Well you're absolutely right.  in fact, the earlier drummers like “Papa Joe Jones and Buddy Rich-these guys were tap dancers. And good tap dancers.. I do a little of that. You know you’d see you had to be good and it was good for your feet ‘cause you were dealing with a lot of things.  You see, I heard that these people were dancers and then drummers."

[Dizzy Gillespie quoted in that same video clip] –  "Dancing inspired the music and music inspired the dancing.The best music is music written for dancing because dancing enhances music. Dancing enhances- Lemme write that down please [laughs]”.

[Narrator- “Jazz culture became a major export of the United States much like Hip Hop is today. Knowing all that, how can black people reclaim our history?

How can we acknowledge the past and design a future with a bold sense of agency that would make our ancestors proud?

I don’t know.  I don’t have the answer to that.

But we can start with tap dance.. The form in itself is a treasure trove of black history.  So let's take it back so let's make it ours again.
.
Let’s reconnect to our roots.  Let's really do business with our history.  Let us tell our own stories

The revolution will not be televised."

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ADDENDUM- DEFINITIONS

Additions and corrections are welcome.

WHAT "BUCK DANCING" MEANS IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS VIDEO
by Azizi Powell, 2024
The term "buck dancing" has a number of different meanings. A relatively new (late 20th/early 21st century?) African American vernacular meaning of "buck dancing" is [verb] "African Americans actually tap dancing and/or African Americans behaving in ways that can be construed as "shuckin and jivin" and/or being an Uncle Tom".

"Buck dancing" is the precursor of "tap dancing". Since at least the beginning of the 21st century, because of black faced minstrelsy, a lot of African Americans have had/still have negative opinions about buck dancing and tap dancing. These negative opinions have resulted in those dance forms being a metaphor among African Americans for a Black person who is "tomming" (acting like an Uncle Tom around and for White people, and particularly rich White people and White people in authority.

As a result, among many contemporary African Americans, saying that a Black person is  "buck dancing" is a short hand way of saying that a Black person is "acting foolishly around White people; and/or "shuckin and jivin" and/or "tomming".  When African Americans use the term "buck dancing", it doesn't have to mean that the person is actually dancing. Instead, this term has the same or a very similar meaning as the contemporary African American meaning of "shuckin' and jivin'.

"Shuckin and jivin" means "to act foolishly [act like a clown] around White people, particularly White people (or other people in authority)"

Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuckin%27_and_jivin%27  for more information about "shuckin and jivin".

**
Shuckin and jivin

The Wikipedia page for "shuckin and jivin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuckin%27_and_jivin%27  quotes this definition from the book
 Ribbin', Jivin', and Playin' the Dozens: The Persistent Dilemma in Our Schools, Herbert L. Foster writes: "Shuckin' and jivin' is a verbal and physical technique some blacks use to avoid difficulty, to accommodate some authority figure, and in the extreme, to save a life or to save oneself from being beaten physically or psychologically".

-end of quote-
As indicated in that quote "shuckin' and jivin' behavior used to be considered by African Americans as a way of surviving the oppressive conditions by pretending to fit the "Sambo"/"Coon" stereotypes about Black people. The character "Stepin Fetchit epitomizes this "shuckin and jivin' behavior. Here's an excerpt from an online article about Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry (May 30, 1902 – November 19, 1985),who created and portrayed "Stepin Fetchit:

Perry was born in Key West, Florida to West Indian immigrant parents.

Perry ran away from home at 14 to join the vaudeville circuit and adopted the stage name of "Stepin Fetchit," taken from his lucky racehorse. Fetchit found his way to Hollywood in the mid 1920s and made his screen debut in The Mysterious Stranger (1927). Fetchit made an immediate impact in Hollywood and very early on in his career was hailed as one of the greatest screen comedians.

Stepin Fetchit's act continued the "trickster" tradition of slaves: outwitting their oppressors by pretending to be slow-witted and lazy, and thereby exploiting whites' sense of superiority. He became a very wealthy man portraying "the laziest human being in the world," the quintessential coon; shuffling, mumbling, slacking an dozing off whenever he could, his heavy eyelids and loose lower lop forever dangling, scratching his shaved head in befuddlement whenever a White actor upbraided or barked orders at him, as they did all the time. 

He was a living cartoon coon--and the animated cartoons of his day often featured a thinly veiled Stepin Fetchit caricature that was hardly more exaggerated than his own shtick. He also spawned a legion of imitators."
-end of quote-
The "Stepin Fetchit" persona was never admired by African Americans except there was that element that it was an act which may have been necessary in those times to survive. However, it seems to me that nowadays most African Americans don't believe that that act is needed anymore. And we look down on Black men and Black woman who "shuck and jive" around White people for their own self-aggrandizement.        

**
Tomming [being an Uncle Tom; Uncle Tomming"
From https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Uncle%20Tom
"Uncle Tom
noun
disparaging : a Black person who is overeager to win the approval of whites (as by obsequious behavior or uncritical acceptance of white values and goals)

disparaging : a person who is overly subservient to or cooperative with authority

Uncle Tomming

intransitive verb

disparaging

to behave like an Uncle Tom"
-snip-
It used to be routine for African Americans to use the term "Aunt Jemima" as a referent for Black females who acted like "Uncle Toms". That "Aunt Jemima" referent is still used, but it seems to me that since at least the early 21st century, "Uncle Tom" has also been used as a referent for Black females.

A person who is tomming (acting like an Aunt Jemima) puts their wellbeing over any considerations for or about other Black people. 

A person who is "tomming" may also shuck and jive, but there are other more "white collar"/sophisticated" ways of tomming than acting like Stepin Fetchit character. 

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This concludes Part I of this pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

The Itch Dance Motions In Various African American Dances

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post presents information about and three* video examples of the "Itch" dance motions that has been performed in various African American non-religious dances.

*Updated on 8/22/2015 with a short video of a Nigerian dance from Ajegunle

I'm interested in finding online comments of and/or videos of other examples of "the Itch" in African American dance and in other dances throughout the world.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos, and all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE "ITCH" DANCE MOTIONS
From https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0306805537 "Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance" by
Marshall Winslow Stearns, ‎Jean Stearns [1968, page 27]
"A small but ubiquitous detail from another African dance has shown considerable power of survival. In Africa scratching is part of a dance to Legba, Guardian of the Crossroads who was identified with St. Peter by Negro folk in New Orleans because both are depicted carrying a bunch of keys. “Each went round and round in a circle” writes Melville and Francis Herskovitz of a Winti dance in Suriname, “arms crossed from time to time over his breast, the finger tugging at his clothes, as though scratching to relieve an itching sensation.”

This gesture became a standard routine known as the Itch in Negro dancing, accompanied by eccentric footwork. “Bull Frog Hop”, a song published in 1909 by Perry Bradford, describes the Itch as part of its routine, and the Butterbeans of the team Butterbeans and Susie used it in the teens to the tune of “Heebie Jeebies” as the climax of his vaudeville act. “I borrowed it from the great dancer named “Stringbeans” said Butterbeans.

The Itch is described by Elise Marcus as “a spasmodic placing of the hands all over the body in an agony of perfect rhythm.” It is the rhythm, of course, that makes the motions effective.

Other and later dancers adapted the Itch to suit their own purposes. Clarence “Dancing” Dotson who played the Keith circuit, combined elements of the Itch and the Quiver with singular effect to create what he announced as “Throwing A Fit”. James Barton’s “Mad Dog “ act also utilized the :Itch. By the late 1940s, at the Savoy Ballroom, the Itch was incorporated in the breakaway of the Lindy as part of the improvisation, and turned up again at the Palladium Ballroom in the fifties and sixties as an improvised addition to the Mambo. Indeed, the gesture has a universality that could lead to its appearance-with or without syncopated rhythms-almost anywhere."

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From http://www.pbs.org/wnet/freetodance/about/interviews/donald4.html "Free To Dance": About The Film by Katrina Hazzard Donald
"African-American dance really early on is organized around a narrative, around the principles of the narrative. The dances were originally danced plays. When people dance in West Africa, it's organized and it has a purpose and it tells a story and it imparts principles. It imparts the norms of the society. It has a function, a high function. And that is not lost simply because we're transported a few thousand miles across the Atlantic a few hundred years into the future.

Early on, the African-American dances are danced narratives, danced plays. And of course, we see that retained right up through the 1930s and even today when African Americans organize embellishments to a dance -- for example, we'll be doing a basic dance step and then someone will throw in a hand movement or a turn, an embellishment, something to spruce up the dance, to make it more interesting, more exciting, to outdo their partner; those embellishments are drawn from the old dance narratives. Those embellishments are running commentaries on the basic dance movement itself. This is one of the principles that's used to create and organize African-American dances. We see it most clearly in the 1920s with the "Buzzard Lope," which, of course, had a caller on the side telling the story and someone patting the music and someone actually dancing out the narrative. And of course, we see some of that on the theatrical stage. When Bill T. Jones, for example, breaks into "The Itch," he is inserting that in the narrative of that dance. He is making a statement. He is pulling from the old smallpox dances of Africa in which scratching and itching was done to ward off the smallpox deity, to ward off the coming of the smallpox god.
-snip-
This excerpt was reformmatted for this post. I also added italics to highlight that particular sentence.

****
TWO EXAMPLES OF "THE ITCH" IN AFRICAN AMERICAN NON-RELIGIOUS DANCE
Example #1: Charleston -- Original Al & Leon Style!!



Trickeration Uploaded on Aug 31, 2007

Al Minns & Leon James from the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem

Filmed during the 50s-60s
-snop-
I believe that the dancers did a form of the Itch between 1:24 - 1:46 of this video.

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Example #2: The Dlow Shuffle



Bop King Dlow, Published on Dec 5, 2013

BopKing Dlow Present's the "Dlow Shuffle!" WORLD PREMIER!!!!
-snip-
The "Dlow Shuffle" is a version of the contemporary Hip-Hop dance called "the Bop".

An example of "the Itch" movements occur at 1:52-1:53 of this video to the lyrics “Now touch on yo' body like you need a sweater”
Click http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/dlow/thedlowshuffle.html for the complete lyrics.

****
UPDATE: August 22, 2015

Ajegunle on TWF



Talk with Funmi, Uploaded on Mar 22, 2010

Selected comment from that video's discussion thread:

C Larbi, 2010
"Dat must be some serious itch. lol"

****
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Visitor comments are welcome.