Type of Document	Thesis
Author	Martin, Christopher Tremewan
Author's Email Address	Dance.teacher@earthlink.net
URN	etd-04112005-174109
Title	Castles and Europe : Race Relations in Ragtime
Degree	Master of Arts
Department	Dance, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title John O Perpener III Committee Chair Sally Sommer Committee Member Tricia Young Committee Member
Keywords	James Reese Europe Irene Castle Vernon Castle Progressive Era Race Relations Social Dance Ragtime Dance Jim Europe
Date of Defense	2005-03-31
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract 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.
Files	Filename       Size       Approximate Download Time (Hours:Minutes:Seconds)     28.8 Modem   56K Modem   ISDN (64 Kb)   ISDN (128 Kb)   Higher-speed Access    01Thesis.pdf 570.28 Kb 00:02:38 00:01:21 00:01:11 00:00:35 00:00:03