Abstract
Atlantic world scholars often write about Africans voyaging between the United Kingdom and the Americas as if it were a thing of the past, yet performance Diasporas continue to invigorate professional dance practice. Gonzalez discusses the phenomena of artist’s transatlantic journeying. Dancers cross the Atlantic and other waters as they learn techniques, make acquaintances and experience the cultural currency that will activate their careers. Transatlantic journeys serve multiple purposes. Many Black British artists hail from Afro-Caribbean or African lineages so ‘venturing out’ may actually be ‘traveling back’ to reconnect with family. While nineteenth-century voyagers followed maritime currents from Africa to the Caribbean to New York to the United Kingdom, contemporary British citizens reverse the journey.
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Notes
- 1.
“Dancing the slaves” was a practice used on slave ships where the captives were forced to dance on the deck on the ship for exercise when they were brought out of the hold. citation (Mustakeem, Sowandie, Slavery At Sea: Terror, Sex and Sickness in the Middle Passage, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2016 p. 71).
- 2.
Full documentation of the interviews carried out are posted on the book’s accompanying web site http://narrativesindance.com.
References
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Professor Jay Cook shared this information with me during an interview in Ann Arbor on October 3, 2013.
The photograph documenting this aspect of the Blackbirds tour comes from the University of Bristol Mander and Mitchenson Collection.
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Gonzalez, A. (2018). Transatlantic Voyages: Then and Now. In: Akinleye, A. (eds) Narratives in Black British Dance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70314-5_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70314-5_18
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