Book Description

Drill team performance is a phenomenal expression of African American rhythmic dance performance created exclusively by African American youth. The purpose of the book is to understand and document what young African American females say about their dance creativity through their self-evaluation of how and why they perform on drill teams in urban public schools. In examining the socio-cultural institutional contexts in which drill exists and flourishes, this book will enable readers to better understand black female dance creativity according to the young African American females who created this phenomenon. This book gives substantitive voice and vision to the creative self-expressiveness of how young African American females represent themselves during their drill team performance amidst the popular gendered perceptions and stereotypical cultural expectations of others who attempt to influence and mediate their dance creativity. While drill team performance was bonding and liberatory for these young African American females, they were subject to other's expectations about how their bodies should move on the drill floor. Young African American females on drill teams "faced down" stereotypical images of women and sexism in expressing their creativity during a drill team performance. Race, gender, and sexism are fundamental factors which influence black female youth identity within contemporary urban dance culture. Young African American females have a unique vantage point about their creative role and style in performing drill routines. Drill was empowering for the individual and the team. The self-reflection and self-evaluation of young African American females about their drill team performance style within the contemporary urban dance arena has not been explored nor recorded. Moreover, the emerging viewpoints and visibility of young African American females on a drill team is undocumented in the literature. This book will stimulate further awareness and exploration of the contributions of young African American females to dance culture as well as inquiry and discussion about the impact of gender and sexism in youth dance ethnology. Undoubtedly, this book expands the body of knowledge about drillin' outside the historically Greek organizations on Black college campuses and contributes to the field of urban youth dance creativity.