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The fanga is a dance taught throughout the United States to children in elementary music classes, students in African dance classes, teachers in multicultural workshops, and professional dancers in touring ensembles. Although the history of the fanga is a path overgrown with myth, this article offers information about the dance's origin, development, and dissemination. Also included is an introduction to Asadata Dafora, the first dancer to stage the fanga in the United States; an extensive examination of Pearl Primus and her role in adapting and popularizing the fanga; and a commentary on the period when the fanga moved into the elementary school classroom.

Chapter 1 examines writing by John Martin, the dance critic for the New York Times from 1927 to 1962, noting the influence of Richard Boleslavsky’s lectures on Martin’s theories of modern dance, Martin’s attention to artists’ economic needs and priorities, as well as Martin’s foreclosure of possibilities for artists of color like Hemsley Winfield, Katherine Dunham, and Asadata Dafora. This chapter highlights Martin’s formulation of kinesthetic engagement or “inner mimicry,” which he developed from Boleslavsky’s concept of an “invisible bond” linking performers and audiences. Against a notion of Martin as an “apologist” for modern dance, this chapter reveals how he generated the terms and frameworks for white modern dance and identified white artists to be its standard-bearers. By placing Martin’s articles alongside those in Ebony magazine and the New York Age, this chapter exposes how Martin devalued the work of Black artists, and his assessments and criteria continue to percolate through a century of critics’ writing.

(Recordings of Duke Ellington's \"Come Sunday,\" with its call to \"God almighty God of love,\" bookend the rousing house and jazz score.) This time, I noticed Mr. Brown's expressive use of the palms, the way in which an open hand can be an invitation or a plea or a challenge, communicating \"Come here\" or \"What do you want from me?\" The evening also included Bill T. Jones's joyous \"D-Man in the Waters (Part 1)\" -- danced so spectacularly that you longed to see this modern classic in full -- and Ohad Naharin's episodic \"Minus 16,\" in which the audience participants, as always, drew as much applause as the dancers.

Aaron Douglas's 1931 mural \"Dance Magic,\" Helene Johnson's 1927 poem \"Bottled,\" and Asadata Dafora's 1934 dance work \"Kykunkor\" are compared and contrasted though the interarts inquiry method. In each of these works, the author created a unique image of a \"jungle dance\" that added to the vibrant exchange of ideas about Africa and African dance that were circulating in the Harlem and Chicago renaissances of the 1920s and 1930s. Douglas, Johnson and Dafora created a potent and poignant moment in which African-American dancers and musicians led the scene, altered the power structure governing their lives and enacted a promise of freedom.

''There was a time,'' he recalled in a recent interview, ''when some people thought folk dances were just for peasants. Older people even used to warn young blacks, 'Don't move your pelvis so much when you dance. It looks vulgar.' But now we know it's O.K. to move your pelvis. Blacks are rediscovering their heritage in the arts. And it's beautiful.'' Mr. [Charles Moore], who studied with Mr. [Dafora] during the 1950's, said there were few opportunities at the time to perform the African material Mr. Dafora taught. ''Back then, many black dancers could only find work in nightclubs,'' Mr. Moore said. ''So Dafora drew not a theater crowd, but what you might call a folklore crowd of students. Yet they were all dedicated people.'' The Marymount programs include Mr. Dafora's ''Awassa Astrige (The Ostrich),'' which contains movements inspired by those of an ostrich, and ''Bundao (Maidens' Stick Dance).'' Mr. Moore said he loved Mr. Dafora's pieces because ''Dafora made people look beautiful.''

One can forgive [Michael Kaiser] his exuberance, however. This celebration is unquestionably the most important modern-dance project of his four-year tenure at the center, growing out of his involvement in the black dance community. Along the lines of the International Ballet Festival he dreamed up two years ago, Kaiser set out to bring substantial number of dance companies -- predominantly black dance companies to boot -- together for five nights of performances. The logistics of such an undertaking are staggering: getting dancers from 17 troupes to be on the same stage within the same week, fitting together works of enormous variety. But if this first program's choreographic offerings were not evenly matched, the presence of so many of the respected elders of modern dance still made a terrific impression. Following his remarks, Kaiser introduced more than two dozen black choreographers and dance company directors, many of whom will be represented by their works and their dancers throughout this week's tribute. Among those assembled were Arthur Mitchell, artistic director of Dance Theatre of Harlem; Judith Jamison, artistic director of the Ailey company; and figures who have moved between dance and theater, such as Carmen de Lavallade, George Faison and Debbie Allen. The performances offered a look at how the African American tradition has become so much a part of the nation's dance. Works such as [Geoffrey Holder]'s \"Dougla\" (1974), based on Trinidadian nuptials, and the venerable Dunham's Brazilian-inspired \"Choros\" (1944) demonstrated the merger of ethnic ritual and Western dance. The appeal of both works (\"Dougla\" was performed by Dance Theatre of Harlem; \"Choros\" by Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble) centered on assertive, insistent rhythms and vibrant costumes.

Dancer-musician Asadata Dafora (1890-1965), a pioneer of African-based dance in the United States, is profiled. Although not widely known today, Asadata directly or indirectly paved the way for almost every African-based dance company in the U.S. Born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, he traveled around West Africa as he was interested in local dance and arrived in New York City in 1929 with a group of Temeni dancers after touring in both the U.S. and in Europe. His African Opera & Dramatic Company, which eventually became known as Shogola Oloba Dancers and Singers, toured the New York City area in 1933 and led to him being offered the chance to mount a full-length opera at the Unity Theatre. This production, Dafora's \"Kykunkor\" (\"The Witch Woman\"), became a critical and popular hit.