Customer Reviews

The Black Dancing Body: A Geography from Coon to Cool

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved this book! People make think that the title and contents were not significant, but they need to take a closer look. I'm a HBCU alumna who danced for SSU in GA. I can correlated to some of the issues that African-American danacers faced in auditions, appearance, and training. For instance, we had to tuck our bottom in plie' to create the straight line. In the book, a section is dedicate to our butt and it's hilarious. I really enjoyed reading the personal interview of different ethnic professional dancers. Also, there are images of these wonderful dancers in their true form. I can not tell everything! If you appreciate African-American dancers and their visions, get this book. If you loved performing arts, get this book. If you are a dancer and want to preserve a part of your history, GET THIS BOOK!

gottschild's work should be an accepted text for black dance history. at the very least, it should be a book many should read to get discussions started about what it is that makes a black dancer so special. and why people assume we're so good at it.

well, as far as concert/modern dance is concerned, our contributions are just coming to light. we have had to cram a lot into a short period of time. and gottschild doesn't miss getting a pertinent viewpoint on this. she speaks to dancers, choreographers and looks at her own history as a dancer to give us this great, vast assortment of perspectives to consider.

By applying a fascinating blend of oral history methods and critical theory, BDG offers a fascinating investigation into a long-neglected idea. BDG is the kind of historian and critic that if she were not writing about a field like Dance that is marginalized within the academy, she would long ago have been recognized as one of the foremost voices in the best new scholarship within American Studies and and the Arts and Humanities in general. I cannot recommend this book more.

Sadly, one of the unintelligent reviewers below does not know what he or she is talking about ***in the slightest bit***.

This is an excellent book, and the first reviewer has actually got the facts wrong. Dixon Gottschild's information reflects one of several stories about Hound Dog - however, the original version still belongs to Thornton, and though Elvis heard multiple versions of the song, his biggest influence was Thornton, and not the white group that also recorded the song.

I started reading this book while researching a paper and almost immediately see a glaring inaccuracy that leaves me wondering if I can possibly continue using the book as a credible source.
The author writes that Elvis Presley copied the sound of Big Mama Thornton's Hound Dog "to the letter" as evidence for her theory, while apparently never listening to at least 1 of these 2 records. Elvis' Hound Dog was based on a satirical reworking of Hound Dog that had been done by a white group (Freddie Bell and the Bellboys), has different lyrics than Thornton's, and is a rock song to her blues song.

One error does not a useless book make, however as source material this author tossed her credibility out the window in the first half-dozen pages.