Dancing in the Light: Six Dances by African-American Choreographers

Taye Diggs introduces this 2001 program from the PBS-aired Great Performances: Dance in America series, which features six historic dances from African-American choreographers. “Awassa Astrige/Ostrich” (1932), choreographed by Asadata Dafora, is a solo performance by G.D. Harris of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company; “Barrelhouse Blues” (1938), choreographed by Katherine Dunham, is an excerpt performed by the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble; “Strange Fruit” (1943), choreographed by Pearl Primus, is performed to a poem memorializing a victim of lynching; “Mourner's Bench” (1947), choreographed by Talley Beatty, recalls another life lost due to racial violence, movingly interpreted by Jerome Stigler; “Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder” (1959), choreographed by Donald McKayle, depicts life on the chain gang; and “D-Man in the Waters—Section 1” (1989), choreographed by Bill T. Jones, features the Arnie Zane Dance Company performing dreamlike scenes depicting the AIDS crisis. Despite some darkly-lit sequences, this powerful sextet is equally important both as artistic performances and as dance history. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (J. Reed)