| New Dance Group: Voices for Change (American Dance Guild) |
Joy is an act of resistance.
—Toi Derricotte, from the poem The Telly Cycle
“Dance is a weapon” was the motto of the New Dance Group (NDG), founded in 1932 with a mission to “provoke and promote social change.” They sought to accomplish this by addressing themes dealing with everyday problems of the working class, and they were portrayed as “artistic innovators against poverty, fascism, hunger, racism, and the manifold injustices of their time.”
Author and dancer Dana Mills, in the article We Can Dance, and It Will Be Our Revolution (Sep.2019), describes how NDG formed a few years after Martha Graham introduced her piece Heretic, “a visceral articulation of resisting evil and wrongdoing.” A modern dance revolutionary, Graham was a potent activist who refused to dance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, stating: “So many artists whom I respect and admire have been persecuted…deprived of the right to work for ridiculous and unsatisfactory reasons, that I should consider it impossible to identify myself, by accepting the invitation, with the regime that has made such things possible.”
The legendary Pearl Primus was one who trained with NDG, as well as studying with Martha Graham and Paul Robeson. Primus wrote: “Why do I dance? Dance is my medicine. It’s the scream which eases for a while the terrible frustration common to all human beings who because of race, creed, or color are ‘invisible.’ Dance is the fist with which I fight the sickening ignorance of prejudice.”
Partner dancing, I’d say, too, is my medicine. It’s profoundly joyful (as one can witness most anywhere people are dancing) and evinces compassion, connection and grounding. Audre Lorde, self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” wrote: “The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers.” If dancing is joyful, and sharing joy can help us not only cope with despair but move us toward action — starting with actively building bridges with others — then dance is my weapon of choice, and I shall wield it like a jubilant sword of righteousness.
Immerse yourself in joyful dance at any of the community dances, classes, and special events listed online at the Dance Calendar.
See you on the dance floor —Sean Donovan