Before we start, I don’t mean the Ballroom scene in the LGBTQ+ community that originated in Harlem.
I mean ballroom dancing: the waltz, the quickstep, the cha cha, the rumba.
[photo by James Barnor. Mr. Aryeetey and partner. G.C Amateur Ballroom Championship, 1949-1950, Accra]
I have long done research on Black people doing dances that are not seen as traditional to our community: ballet, burlesque, even irish dance (before there was Morgan Bullock, the was Keltic Dreams).
But now it is time for something new. And something old for me as I started doing ballroom dance in the mid 1990s. Now I am interested in place black dancers (eg. Norton and Margot, Britt Stewart, Oti Mabuse, Johannes Radebe) have played in the discipline.
Kristine Maitland 