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Events
Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
Jun. 30 | 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies Teaching, Advising, and Program Development due
Oct. 1 | Travel Grants for Graduate Students
For submission guidelines, click here
Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
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Lacey, Brenda W. "Feet Don't Fail Me Now: A Study of African American Females Performing on a School-based Drill Team," American Studies, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, December 2003.
This dissertation researched the drill team performance of African-American female youth and examined their unique creativity and style of “drillin.” Drill team performance was a means of self-expression and supported the passionate commitment of young African-American females to strengthen their identity, self-esteem and liberation within the creative arts. The young African-American females’ self-reflection and self-evaluation about their drill performance style within the contemporary dance arena has not been explored or recorded. Moreover, the creativity of young African-American females within contemporary drill team performance is undocumented in this literature. The purpose of the study was to understand and document what young African-American females said about their dance creativity through their self-evaluation of how and why they performed on drill teams in urban public schools at the secondary level. The study incorporated the themes of black feminist creativity and standpoint theory as a framework for examining the perspectives of young African-American females about their drill team performance. This research questioned and contextualized how these young performers on the Diva High Drill Team expressed their dance creativity through their body movements, dress uniform, hairstyles, choreography, personal attitude and commitment to perfection when performing a drill routine. The young women who performed on drill teams challenged socio-cultural expectations and normative standards of female roles and styles. A major component of this dissertation was the video documentary produced by this researched titled Feet Don’t Fail me Now: A Celebration of a African American Drill and Step Team Competition (1999) as part of the compilation of research data. This research contributed to established and emerging trends linking women’s studies, cultural studies and media studies specific to the arena of contemporary black dance by uncovering the voices of young African American females who were determined to not let their “feet fail them now.”
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