The Blackness of Medieval Dance

This article examines medieval European dance from the perspective of race. Specifically, it interprets texts and images from the Late Middle Ages that integrate dance and blackness in provocative and revelatory ways. The analysis reveals that processes of premodern racialization were just as mobile and fluid as the dancing bodies were themselves. This study is indebted to medievalist Cord Whitaker’s recent scholarship on “black metaphors” and their role in the construction of medieval race-thinking. While Whitaker’s study is based on literature and rhetoric, I argue that medieval dance also participated in metaphorical configurations of race-making. In summary, this article contributes to a larger study on the global Middle Ages and gestures toward a decolonization of medieval studies and dance studies. Examining the oscillating significance of the blackness of medieval dance may inform the contemporary moment as it wrestles with the legacy of racism and biopolitics.