Jumping the Color Line: Vernacular Jazz Dance in American Film, 1929-1945

Jumping the Color Line explores jazz dance in film as a focal point of American race relations, examining how the racialized and gendered body in film performs, challenges, and negotiates identities and stereotypes. It highlights the role of marginal film forms in disseminating alternative images of racial and gender identities as embodied by dancers.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 02 February 2021
Publisher: John Libbey & Co

From the late 1920s to the end of World War II, African American music and dance styles were prevalent in films, but Black performers were often marginalized and limited to specialty acts and short films. Jumping the Color Line explores the role of jazz dance in film as a focal point of American race relations, examining how the racialized and gendered body in film performs, challenges, and negotiates identities and stereotypes. The book includes six chapters that address various films and performers, including Hollywood's first Black female star, male tap dance class acts in Black-cast short films, the film career of Black tap soloist Jeni LeGon, the role of dance in the Soundies jukebox shorts of the 1940s, cinematic images of the Lindy hop, and a series of teen films from the early 1940s that appealed primarily to young White fans of swing culture. With a majority of examples taken from marginal film forms, the book highlights their role in disseminating alternative images of racial and gender identities as embodied by dancers, which were at odds with those typically found in major Hollywood productions.

Weight: 395g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780861967438