Ebonic Bodies in Motion: Discerning the Metaphysical Emergence of African American Movement Language

Ebonic Bodies in Motion: Discerning the Metaphysical Emergence of African American Movement Language centers Black women in Brooklyn, their knowledge systems, and coins the term African American movement language (AAML). Brooklyn is a cultural hub that contributes to the global landscape of dance, fashion, and music, andBlack women in Brooklyn have been creators of culture and have significantly shaped the dance landscape. Through a practice-based research project design and insistence on Black oral and embodied traditions, this study examines unexplored narratives of Black women dancers and native speakers of the Black American oral tradition shaped by the distinct experience of being in Brooklyn. Through a critical metaphysical analysis curated by a Hood Logic methodology, I assert that their nuanced experiences and the intersectionality of the forces that shape these experiences constitute the Ebonic Body: a distinct consciousness, a specific way of being in the world, and a definite knowledge system. Thus, the Ebonic Body acts as both an ancestral and evolutionary cyclical relationship between phenomenological, epistemological, and ontological frameworks; in motion, not only through dance, but also in how they 'move' about the world.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Dance

Grantor

Texas Woman's University

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Jordan, Enya-Kalia

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Akinleye, Adesola

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Fuchs, Jordan
• Williams-Witherspoon,Kimmika
• Gamblin, Sarah

• Dance
• Black feminism
• Black

Language dc:language.iso

English

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/11274/17843

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:twu-ir.tdl.org:11274/17843