"Dirty Dancing" Is White Enough -- Part 3

Continued from Part 1 and Part 2.

In this article I use the words Negro and Caucasian, because they were the polite words in the early 1960s.

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Richard Dyer's article "White Enough" about the movie Dirty Dancing includes the following key statement:

... historically, where the [movie's] dance comes from -- albeit mixed with other sources, albeit filtered and exaggerated by white perceptions -- is African-American musical culture.

In my article's Part 2 and 3, I am offering a different perspective on the importance of Negro culture in the movie's dancing. I am arguing that Negro culture was only a minor contributor to the movie's dancing.

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Kenny Ortega, the movie's choreographer, explains how he created the "dirty dancing" style (2:55 to 3:48 in the the following video).

"Dirty dancing" is like soul dancing -- only with a partner. [There is] a little mambo thrown in and a little Cuban motion thrown in. It's sort of a conglomeration that is based on all the original dancing of the early sixties. ...

We work-shopped with eight principal dancers and came up with what I think is a really wonderful idea, based on an authentic dance style of the early sixties, of the period.

I assume that Ortega means that "soul dancing" essentially is Negro dancing and that soul dancing normally is not done with a partner.

The following video shows Ortega creating and explaining the movie's "dirty dancing". When I myself watch the video, I do not perceive any "soul dancing" (Negro dancing). Rather, I perceive only Latin dancing. I suppose the dancing might be called mambo or Cuban motion. I don't get why Ortega calls such dancing "soul dancing".

There are practically no videos that meet both of the following criteria:

1) Show Negroes dancing as couples in the late 1950s or early 1960s

2) The dancing looks like the "dirty dancing" in our movie.

 I found the the following video from 1965. There, after about 17:20, you can glimpse some Negro couples dancing what I would call soul dancing.

Maybe someone else can find many more videos that meet both those criteria. I will be happy to show them on my blog. Send me the links at MikeSylwester@gmail.com

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The reality is that a large group of resort hotel employees at a party in 1963 would not dance the "dirty dancing" shown in the movie. Perhaps a few might dance that way, and perhaps that few might preoccupy Baby Houseman's attention as she walked through the room.

Furthermore, those few who were "dirty dancing" would not (in my opinion) perceive that they were dancing in a soul (Negro) style. Rather, they would perceive that they were dancing in a Latin (or perhaps jazz) style.

Young people of that era had grown up watching the I Love Lucy television series, which (1951-1957), which featured Latin dancing in most episodes. Lucy's husband Desi owned a nightclub that featured Cuban music and dancing.

Latin dancing was featured also on the Lawrence Welk show. My blog used to have a couple of posts (this and that) showing videos of such dancing, but all the videos have been removed from YouTube.

There were no television shows -- or movies -- that similarly featured Negro dancing. Basically, only single Negro males (not male-female couples) were shown dancing -- tap-dancing (like Sammy Davis, Jr.) or novelty dancing (like Chubby Checker).

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Of course, Negroes were dancing as couples a lot during the late 1950s and early 1960s. However, Caucasians did not see much of it and were not influenced much by it -- even Caucasian teenagers dancing in their homes' basements.

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Continued at