Where did the African influence on American dance begin?
On board that ship, as we know from history, the African slaves were placed in the hull back to belly, back to belly, to belly, back to belly, sitting like so. Rocking, rocking. The ship would continue to cross the ocean, bound for whatever port. During the voyage, the captain and the others in charge urged them with cat-o’-nine-tails to go onto the deck to dance, because this would bring life and energy, and return the color to the skin which by this time was pallid and infested. Oftentimes they would have one person there with the jawbone of an ass or stick banging on a bucket providing a rhythm, as if one rhythm was universal for the entire continent of Africa. Forget that this is a continent of over 660 million people, over 2,000 languages, spoken from one end of that continent to the other, and that this rhythm had to reach out and bring in all of these languages. And they began to move and all of this energy is there and you are responding and you are responding and as you are re
