UCLA

I highlight the racialized and gender politics of dancing with the hips, butt, and pelvis (h/b/p) and I examine the engagement and complex relationship with the politics of respectability and pleasure in Black culture in the United States. Additionally, I explore Black social dance as a means to attend to the lived experiences of people in Black communities. I focus on the autonomy of creative communities to form their own standards and aesthetics for generating their cultural materials; these standards may function inside and/or outside of mainstream narratives. The creators of these cultural products are influenced by the dominant culture and other external narratives, yet their materials operate within the community’s own value system, which may not be legible to outsiders. Additionally, I discuss how Black women negotiate these systems to create individual and communal practices that utilize the h/b/p to find joy and pleasure in their existence. Overall, the goal of this research is to provide a deeper understanding of how Black folks navigate creative practices of the everyday in interracial environments. When Black folks are out of the direct view of the White gaze, they are able to create spaces that are fashioned to their unique perspectives, values, and inclinations.

To contextualize these movement cultures, I explore the use of the h/b/p in Black majorette/dance team performance, a movement practice that originates from the marching band culture at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The Black majorette/dance team genre is popular throughout parts of the U.S. South and comprises three main groups: HBCU teams, youth teams, and queer teams. I focus this research partially on my fieldwork in the Southern Louisiana region and the two main dance teams at Southern University and A&M College (Southern University): Fabulous Dancing Dolls (FDD), the team that performs with the band during football season, and the Gold ‘N Bluez (GnB), the team that performs at basketball games and other school events. In addition to the dance teams on Southern University’s campus, I refer to examples in the wider Black majorette/dance team genre and Black popular culture to contextualize matters pertaining to U.S. Black culture and community.