Choreographing the Folk: The Dance Stagings of Zora Neale Hurston »

While Zora Neale Hurston and her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God have become widely celebrated, she was also a prolific stage director and choreographer. In the 1930s Hurston produced theatrical concerts that depicted a day in the life of a railroad work camp in Florida and featured a rousing Bahamian Fire Dance as the dramatic finale. In Choreographing the Folk, Anthea Kraut traces the significance and influence of Hurston's little-known choreographic work.

Introduction Rediscovering Hurston's Embodied Representations of the Folk 1

1 Commercialization and the Folk 25

2 Choreography and the Folk 53

3 Producing The Great Day 91

4 Hurston's Embodied Theory of the Folk 119

5 Interpreting the Fire Dance 145

6 Black Authenticity, White Artistry 173

Coda: Hurston's Choreographic Legacy 213

Acknowledgments 219

Appendix A Chronology of Known Performances by Hurston and the Bahamian Dancers 223

Appendix B Known Members of the Bahamian Dancers between 1932 and 1936 221

Notes 229

Index 291