Sublimation of Language by Body in Ntozake Shange's From Okra to Greens/A Different Kinda Love Story: A Play / With Music & Dance

T.Saranya; Dr.B.Visalakshi

Volume : VIII, Issue : III, March - 2019

Sublimation of Language by Body in Ntozake Shange's From Okra to Greens/A Different Kinda Love Story: A Play / With Music & Dance

T. Saranya, Dr. B. Visalakshi

Abstract :

African Americans have succeeded in music, dance, religion, culture, art and literature. The Harlem Renaissance of 1920s and Black Art Movement of 1960s was a high point in encouraging the art and culture in literature. The Black Theatre, a part of Black Art Movement, presented music and dance of African ethnic group in delicate manner. Cultural dances play a vast role in African societies. Africans consider dance as the elixir of their lives. The dance reinforces and civilizes them. For them, dance is a magic that harmonize their body, mind and soul. In her choreopoem, Shange considers dance as a fundamental art form of artistic and pious expression. In her play From Okra to Greens/A Different Kinda Love Story: A Play / With Music & Dance, Shange has ought together various dance forms, like the adagio, belly dance, vernacular dance and tribal dances of the Asanthi, Yoruba and Ewe groups to celeate each and every emotional incident in life of the characters. Dance, for Shange, is a significant analysis of movements and emotions