Were Vernon and Irene Castle drawing upon African American music and dance to advance their personal ambitions? Yes. Was the transmission of cultural elements between black and white society as simple as commodification and appropriation? No. The Castles' work with James Reese Europe and the musicians in his Society Orchestra was extremely liberal for the times, complicating any attempt to simplify their efforts to popularize black music and dance forms. The first part of this paper lays out the racial conflicts that were everywhere in the Progressive Era. A simple biographical sketch of the affairs of the Castles and Europe follows. An examination of the physical elements of Ragtime dancing, detailing the elements that concerned the moralists of the time, and the efforts the Castles took to remove the blackness from movement is found in the third section. Finally, the implications of the Castles work is considered, looking at the context of the philosophies of racial uplift dominant at the time, and the Castles and Europe are found to be migratory agents of cultural transmission, collaborating to achieve personal ends while at the same time advocating positive racial relations. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Dance in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2005. / March 31, 2005. / James Reese Europe, Irene Castle, Vernon Castle, Progressive Era, Race Relations, Social Dance, Ragtime Dance, Jim Europe / Includes bibliographical references. / John O. Perpener III, Professor Directing Thesis; Tricia Young, Committee Member; Sally Sommer, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_180970 |
| Contributors | Martin, Christopher Tremewan (authoraut), III, John O. Perpener (professor directing thesis), Young, Tricia (committee member), Sommer, Sally (committee member), School of Dance (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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