A dialogics of rhythm: Dance and the performance of cultural conflict

This article examines mid-twentieth century North American dance forms as communicative performances structured in the multiple and conflictual intersections between African American and European American cultures. The analysis of these forms illustrates the value of historicized critical investigation in challenging the unity of any culture, the singularity of any practice, and the productivity of rigid dualisms in critical communication studies. Understanding of cultural processes occurs through an investigation of the fractures and dialogues within a particular practice, not through the construction of an idealized “purity.”.