Notes on Funk

In the 1980s performance artist Adrian Piper held a series of participatory social events where she taught white people how to dance to funk. She found that white people can indeed dance given the right approach, despite the disparaging cliche.

Piper understand dance and funk in particular as a language of interpersonal communication and self expression -- a medium of expression inaccessible to white culture. Social dance, she surmised, plays different roles in white culture than in black culture, according to her analysis and reflections about the project.

While social dance among whites is typically a spectator sport or a mark of social grace and achievement, among blacks it is a collective means of self-transcendence based on a system of symbols and patterns of movement.

In funk, she says, the movement must be experienced. So Piper arranged large-scale performances with 60 or more people. She introduced basic dance movements with their cultural references and their roles. She would break down the basic movements into their essentials so that the patterns were accessible.

Deeper into the exploration, she would add a quasi theoretical discussion about the relation of dance and music. The music would continue to play which allowed participants to listen and think while also respond to the to the melody and rhythmic qualities by dancing to it. They listened with their bodies, which was a major breakthrough. The dance became a collective, participatory activity.