Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Join the John W. Kluge Center and Jurretta J. Heckscher for a discussion of the roots of African American Vernacular dance traditions in the Chesapeake region before Emancipation, and the immense but largely unrecognized impact those traditions have had on the United States and the world.
In this talk, Heckscher will outline some of her major research conclusions, highlighting recent trends and advances in related fields concerned with the study of American slavery and the understanding of dance, movement, the body, and the senses.
Jurretta J. Heckscher is a cultural historian who holds degrees from Harvard University, the University of Oxford, and the George Washington University. Her most recent publications have been on Thomas Jefferson's relationship with books and reading, and on the cultural history of Virginia's Natural Bridge; while her current research focuses on the African American dance traditions that developed in the Chesapeake region during the era of enslavement and their impact on American culture. Heckscher's research lies at the intersection of cultural history, dance and movement studies, folklore and anthropology, ethnomusicology and creolization studies.
For transcript and more information, visit loc.gov/item/video-11752
Join the John W. Kluge Center and Jurretta J. Heckscher for a discussion of the roots of African American Vernacular dance traditions in the Chesapeake region before Emancipation, and the immense but largely unrecognized impact those traditions have had on the United States and the world.
In this talk, Heckscher will outline some of her major research conclusions, highlighting recent trends and advances in related fields concerned with the study of American slavery and the understanding of dance, movement, the body, and the senses.
Jurretta J. Heckscher is a cultural historian who holds degrees from Harvard University, the University of Oxford, and the George Washington University. Her most recent publications have been on Thomas Jefferson's relationship with books and reading, and on the cultural history of Virginia's Natural Bridge; while her current research focuses on the African American dance traditions that developed in the Chesapeake region during the era of enslavement and their impact on American culture. Heckscher's research lies at the intersection of cultural history, dance and movement studies, folklore and anthropology, ethnomusicology and creolization studies.
For transcript and more information, visit loc.gov/item/video-11752
