How integral is dance to the rest of life in African-American culture?
Dance is deeply connected to labor on at least two fronts, in at least two ways. First of all, dance movement is derived from ritual. And ritual movements are attempts to crystallize those postures and gestures that contribute to human survival. For example, certain planting gestures are solidified in harvest dancing. In fertility dancing and fertility rituals, those movements imitate those gestures and those postures that are held in esteem in the society, and those postures and gestures that are held in esteem are those that are most useful and those that contribute most heavily toward survival. Dance movements that imitate the dropping of a seed into the earth, for example, are solidified as dance. And those things are taken directly from labor. That’s one way.
