Dance to the Drummer's Beat: Melvin Deal and African Dance.

Washington, D.C.- native Melvin Deal formulated African dance through teaching and performing in the District in the late 1950s and early 1960s while still a student at Howard University. Deal came by his earliest versions of traditional dance through Caribbean immigrants (namely Dominicans and Cubans) to the area. Though Deal thought he was learning a traditional form of African dance, he was really exposed to African dance through a Caribbean filter. This exposure helped him to initiate and later capitalize on what would become a growing trend in popular culture as well as dance-to identify with African iconography and celebrate cultural heritage through the language of dance. This presentation examines the dance legacy of Melvin Deal and Deal's contributions of African dance forms to Washington, D.C. dance scene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]