Choreographing the Folk: The Dance Stagings of Zora Neale Hurston

by Anthea Kraut

Overview

Recovers an important dimension of the work of the renowned African American artist

While Zora Neale Hurston and her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God have become widely celebrated, she was also a prolific stage director and choreographer. In the 1930s Hurston produced theatrical concerts that depicted a day in the life of a railroad work camp in Florida and featured a rousing Bahamian Fire Dance as the dramatic finale. In Choreographing the Folk, Anthea Kraut traces the significance and influence of Hurston’s little-known choreographic work.

Hurston’s concerts were concrete illustrations of the “real Negro art theatre” she was eager to establish, and they compellingly demonstrate how she used the arena of performance to advance a nuanced understanding of the black diaspora. Her version of the Fire Dance was staged in a variety of venues during the 1930s. In its multiple representations, Kraut asserts, the dance raised critical issues about ownership, artistry, and authenticity.

Choreographing the Folk argues for the significance of Hurston’s choreography, and with perceptiveness, sensitivity, and originality, Kraut illuminates the important and often-contested place of black folk dance in American culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816647125
Publisher:	University of Minnesota Press
Publication date:	10/03/2008
Series:	Indigenous Americas Ser.
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Anthea Kraut is assistant professor of dance at the University of California, Riverside, where she teaches courses in dance history and theory.

Table of Contents

Preface ix Introduction: Rediscovering Hurston's Embodied Representations of the Folk 1
1 Commercialization and the Folk 25
2 Chreography and the Folk 53
3 Producing The Great Day 91
4 Hurston's Embodied Theory of the Folk 119
5 Interpreting the Fire Dance 145
6 Black Authenticity, White Artistry 173 Coda: Hurston's Choreographic Legacy 213 Acknowledgments 219 Appendix A Chronology of Known Performances by Hurston and the Bahamian Dancers 223 Appendix B Known Members of the Bahamian Dancers between 1932 and 1936 227 Notes 229 Index 291