Over the years there have been many different forms of dance created by many different religious and ethnic groups. The development of American social dance was outlined in the video New Worlds, New Forms. This video changed my perception of American jazz dance as well as my feelings that I bring to class and express in my dancing.
             New Worlds, New Forms carried me through many centuries of cultures and dances that I have never seen before. I never thought of dance as something that I can carry with me for the rest of my life no matter where I end up. During the age of slavery Africans would use dance as a way to suppress all the negativity they were experiencing. It reminded them of who they were and where they came from. Once in Europe they felt it was important to dance to keep from losing relations with Africa. Little did they know that the Europeans would ban dance for fear that the Africans used it as a form of communication amongst each other. In the early 1900's Ballroom dance was popular in Europe. It was proper social behavior to know how to dance with a partner. Soon Blacks and Whites would join at city night clubs. Each created new dances such as the Charleston and the Lindy hop. Everyone did each others dances and even changed them up a bit. People would come from all over to dance at night clubs. While some people were more conservative, others felt they were free to express themselves. In the 1950's River and Blues and Country Western music was popular. Parents of White teens thought this music was a threat to respectable behavior. The Buddy Dean Show was created so that White people would be able to dance freely six days a week to many different types of music. One day a month Blacks were given the opportunity to dance on the show. In 1963 the Civil Rights Activation was formed and rather than Blacks and Whites integrating onto the show, the show was cancelled. While the integration of Bl...