\u201cThe dancing is very explosive,\u201d says J\u2019aime Griffith, who is a professor at Grambling State University and the director of the school\u2019s dance line, the Orchesis Dance Company. \u201cYou have to be able to see it from the other side of the stadium because we\u2019re in a competition with the opposing band and dancers. We want to outdo them.\u201d<\/p>\n
More recently, majorette dance has entered the mainstream, taking center stage on reality television series, movies, and social media apps like TikTok. Along the way, the majorette community has been adjusting to the increased exposure, which has brought new challenges\u2014and new opportunities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The Evolution of Majorette Dance<\/h2>\n
In the HBCU legacy, majorette dance represents a combination of Africanist and European inventions. That aesthetic tension remains a pillar of the dancing, with today\u2019s majorette choreography featuring an amalgam of jazz, hip hop, and ballet. Field routines\u2014dances performed on the gridiron at halftime with the marching band\u2014are as likely to include bucking, where the pelvis pumps front and back in a deep, wide stance, as they are a grand battement, a high balletic kick with pointed toes. Stand routines\u2014a form of call-and-response danced in the bleachers just feet away from spectators\u2014embody a similar formula at a lower vibration.<\/p>\n
The Alcorn State University Golden Girls are hailed as the first example of HBCU majorette dance as we know it today. The squad debuted at the 1968 Orange Blossom Classic in Miami. Affectionately called \u201cthe mothers\u201d by fans and other lines, their gold boots have become an iconic signature.<\/p>\n The Jackson State University Prancing J-Settes also played a formative role in the development of majorette dance. A collaboration with queer men, the team\u2019s approach, called J-setting, is practiced widely today and mixes the percussiveness of West African dance with acrobatics. (Think Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cSingle Ladies [Put a Ring on It]\u201d music video, but with full-out stunts.)<\/p>\n The evolution of majorette dance reflects specific and sometimes\u00ad conflicting agendas, says Dr. Thomas DeFrantz, a professor at North\u00adwestern University and a leading scholar of Black studies and dance studies. \u201cMany dance forms arise to help young people do what they need to do,\u201d he says. \u201cSo majorette dance arrived to help young Black women be available to each other, be attractive to each other, be attrac\u00adtive to potential partners, and to be emblems of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n But what happens when the dancing leaves\u2014or is extracted\u00ad from\u2014the community that made it? Television series like Lifetime\u2019s \u201cBring It\u201d have brought majorette dance to a broader audience; Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s HBCU homecoming-inspired performance at Coachella in 2018 put the phenomenon on a global stage. An Oprah- and H.E.R.-produced film about a Los Angeles\u2013based ballerina turned majorette line dancer is currently in development. And the style has all but been absorbed into the digital zeitgeist via majorette-inspired dance challenges on TikTok.<\/p>\n That rising popularity has directly impacted the practice itself, says Griffith, who notes an inflow of commercial forms like heels dance, as well as more extreme tricks from competition dance and social media. Other dancers say the mainstream recognition is overdue, but has not come without its issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI do feel excited about it finally getting the spotlight,\u201d says Sanaa Davis-McClain, a former captain of the Howard University Ooh La La! Dance Line. \u201cBut I also wish we could spotlight the teaching and the classes and the foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n Majorette dance has even made its way to non-HBCU campuses. In September 2022, a video posted to X (formerly Twitter) of a stand performance by the then-new Cardinal Divas of the University of Southern California spurred a flurry of reactions. The squad faces unique challenges\u2014partly because HBCU culture isn\u2019t sure how to feel about it.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople said that since I don\u2019t go to an HBCU, I don\u2019t have the privilege to do this, saying they need to be gatekeeping it,\u201d says Princess Isis Lang, the founder and incoming assistant coach of the Cardinal Divas. That resistance to Lang, a Black woman, creating a team at what has historically been a predominantly white institution is a ripple effect of a history of white Americans co-opting, profiting off of, and failing to acknowledge the creators of Black cultural exponents.<\/p>\n Giselle Edwards, a sophomore who dances on the Cardinal Divas line, measures the fullness of her experience differently. \u201cMy Blackness isn\u2019t determined by where I go to school,\u201d she says. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if I\u2019m at an HBCU, USC, or a community college.\u201d And many in the HBCU community support groups like the Cardinal Divas, including Dr. Kecia Ashley, the sponsor of the Golden Girls and a former squad member herself. \u201cI look at other cultures attempting to emulate the style of dance that our culture does so well as a form of respect and admiration,\u201d Ashley says. \u201cAnd we love that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As the cultural landscape of majorette dance continues to shift, new growing pains will emerge. But there is an encouraging constant across its widening, multiplying contexts: Black women, who remain at the center. They continue to uplift its legacy.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing a majorette dancer has truly inspired me to go after my dreams,\u201d says Davis-McClain, who is pursuing a commercial dance career in Los Angeles. \u201cI think that in itself speaks to what kind of impact this culture is having on young ladies like me.\u201d <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The post How Majorette Dance Became a Mainstream Phenomenon<\/a> appeared first on Dance Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At historically Black colleges and universities in the American South, the real stars of any football game are the majorettes. Their signature<\/p>\n![\"an](\"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/The-first-ever-line-of-the-Alcorn-State-University-Golden-Girls.-Courtesy-the-Golden-Girls-1024x764-1.jpg\")
Off the Field<\/h2>\n
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A Continuing Legacy<\/h2>\n
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