Blacks already were at the cutting edge of American dance in 1988, when Philadelphia Dance Company hosted the First International Conference on Black Dance Companies and the American Dance Festival, Durham, North Carolina, celebrated The Black Tradition in American Modern Dance. That visibility honored black dance's creators and performers from Africa and slavery to contemporary times.

Slaves created enduring dances. For example, the ring-shout was sacred; worshipers sang, shuffled, stomped, and clapped, moving counterclockwise in a circle. Among secular dances, one utilized flat foot dragging, gliding, and shuffling along. Another used crouched movements, bending waist and knees. Some imitated buzzard, chicken, and other animal steps; others moved rhythmically, showing physicality and feeling. Many involved pelvic moves, thrusting outward from the hips in a swinging manner. African rhythm emphasized the second and fourth beats on the musical bar, as if to answer the first and third beats. This tradition displayed dancers’ “polyrhythm in body movements” (Borross). They would move their heads and feet in alternate rhythms, representing motion and harmony.

Black vernacular dancing mirrored racial and social realities. Drumming was colonial slaves’ major accompaniment, but slave resistance resulted in laws against and punishment for using drums. The banjo, fiddle, and tambourine thus evolved as customary accompaniments, alongside hand clapping and foot stomping. Dance remained central in religious faith and practice. Worshipers would sing, clap, or shuffle until they were “possessed” by the spirit. Ring-shouts marked birth, marriage, death, or the cotton harvest. Secular dances, such as the Buzzard Lope or Turkey Trot, continued imitating animals. Others celebrated pastimes such as Jonkonnu, a Christmastime festival, or a Saturday night ending the work week. Bondmen and women often did the Cakewalk, a strut mocking the stiff upper bodies of whites at plantation and town balls. Bondfolk also would congregate and dance publicly, as in Congo Square of New Orleans. Free black William Henry Lane clogged and tap danced in the Irish pubs of New York City and performed with the white Ethiopian Minstrels around the world. Known as “Master Juba,” he was “considered the most influential performer in nineteenth-century American dance.” Also, white minstrels began donning blackface to mimic slaves, including the fictive slave “Jim Crow.”