UC Irvine

This research is focused on using dances of the African diaspora towards building a dance education model as a tool of empowerment for black youth. This cultural history of movement explores sociopolitical awareness and mobilization through research in Ghana and a Civic Engagement Project tested in Inglewood, CA. This research explores factors that contribute to the disenfranchisement of black youth, structures of racism that affect them, and how traditions, history, and power are embodied in the continuum of diaspora dances ranging from traditional African dance to Hip-hop. This research is supported by material from Brenda Dixon Gottschild's Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance (1996), Halifu Osumare's The Africanist Aesthetic in Global Hip-Hop Power Moves (2007), Kariamu Welsh- Ashante African Dance (1996), and Tommy Defrantz's Dancing Many Drums (2002).