Minstrelsy as Children's Entertainment
Erica Bledsoe and Jen Johnson respond to the idea that Blackface Minstrelsy was a children's entertainment.
Minstrelsy as Children's Entertainment
In June and July of 1846, in London, the Ethiopian Serenaders announced a series of daytime performances, beginning at 2:30 in the afternoon on Wednesdays, in addition to their usual evening performances at St. James’s Theatre. These shows, though ostensibly created to take advantage of the high demand for the Serenaders, seemed to have potentially made blackface minstrelsy performances available to be viewed by children. We do not know when it became possible for children to see these performances, however, we can be certain that they did. However, we have no record or scholarship on how these performances, or blackface minstrelsy in general, might have been received by children. It was the purpose of this interview to look into this relatively unresearched area, and to come up with some hypotheses about children’s reactions to these performances, and about how these performances might have been changed to make them suitable for younger audiences.
Erica Bledsoe and Jen Johnson were the two artists asked to speak on this subject. Both have both been or are presently children’s entertainers, and both have performed in and choreographed theatrical performances designed to entertain children. Jen Johnson has also been involved with the Juba Project for several years, and can be seen dancing in “Channeling Juba’s Dance” elsewhere in this section.
The excerpts in this clip show some of the conclusions that we came to about how the performances might have functioned as educational, what might have been changed about the performances make them appropriate for children, and what might have been entertaining for children.
Jen Johnson has taught, created and performed across Canada and internationally for over 15 years. Her teaching experience is extensive, having presented Creative Movement and Choreography to children, teens and adults with varied levels of dance and theatre training. She is currently in her 6th year as Instructor for the School of Comedy at Toronto’s Humber College where she cultivates the raw comedic talents of her students. Jen also teaches movement with Learning Through the Arts, a program which develops and teaches curriculum subjects (K-12) through art, the Canadian Opera Company’s Outreach Programs, and 5 Elements 4 Girls - a camp which fosters self-esteem in teen girls. Jen leads numerous workshops directed at classroom educators and peer artists on the topic of bringing the arts into the classroom. She has recently produced Kick Start Arts!, a new educational DVD series designed to show teachers how to bring dance and drama into the classroom.
As a dance and theatre artist, Jen’s unique choreographic fusions have been performed in a variety of independent dance and theatre productions, fringe festivals and performance series and have been called “witty” (The Globe and Mail) and “the essence of performance...she dances with her words and speaks with her motions and it is not possible to separate the two.” (fFIDA Dance Forum) She has also directed numerous theatre productions, including her co-created bouffon piece Fable, which toured across Canada. Recently she performed with Motus O Dance Theatre in their children’s production “East of the Sun, West of the Moon”. She is thrilled to have performed the magically transforming “Prince-Bear” for children on tours of Newfoundland, Labrador, Northern Ontario, Vancouver, and now Southern Ontario.
Jen is co-founder and co-artistic director of Hub 14, a studio space in downtown Toronto devoted to the exploration and development of innovative dance and theatre.
Visit the website at http://hub14.org/jen_bio.html
Erica Bledsoe studied dance at Ryerson, The School of the Toronto Dance Theatre and York University. After school she became a dancer with Tanglewood Family Entertainment and ended up performing and touring all the major theatres of North America for the next five years. Franklin the Turtle, Caillou, Little Bear, Elliot Moose and other Canadian favourites were among the live shows she performed in. After retiring from the road, Erica became the US and International booking agent for multiple family entertainment acts for Paquin Entertainment including Famous People Players, Franklin the Turtle, Big Comfy Couch and more. She soon became the head of Family Entertainment for the agency and was charged with negotiating and licensing new family acts, including The Backyardigans and Max & Ruby, and to produce live stage shows for the roster. Erica recently worked as the Talent Coordinator for the Jerry Lewis Telethon in Los Angeles.
In June and July of 1846, in London, the Ethiopian Serenaders announced a series of daytime performances, beginning at 2:30 in the afternoon on Wednesdays, in addition to their usual evening performances at St. James’s Theatre. These shows, though ostensibly created to take advantage of the high demand for the Serenaders, seemed to have potentially made blackface minstrelsy performances available to be viewed by children. We do not know when it became possible for children to see these performances, however, we can be certain that they did. However, we have no record or scholarship on how these performances, or blackface minstrelsy in general, might have been received by children. It was the purpose of this interview to look into this relatively unresearched area, and to come up with some hypotheses about children’s reactions to these performances, and about how these performances might have been changed to make them suitable for younger audiences.
Erica Bledsoe and Jen Johnson were the two artists asked to speak on this subject. Both have both been or are presently children’s entertainers, and both have performed in and choreographed theatrical performances designed to entertain children. Jen Johnson has also been involved with the Juba Project for several years, and can be seen dancing in “Channeling Juba’s Dance” elsewhere in this section.
The excerpts in this clip show some of the conclusions that we came to about how the performances might have functioned as educational, what might have been changed about the performances make them appropriate for children, and what might have been entertaining for children.
Jen Johnson has taught, created and performed across Canada and internationally for over 15 years. Her teaching experience is extensive, having presented Creative Movement and Choreography to children, teens and adults with varied levels of dance and theatre training. She is currently in her 6th year as Instructor for the School of Comedy at Toronto’s Humber College where she cultivates the raw comedic talents of her students. Jen also teaches movement with Learning Through the Arts, a program which develops and teaches curriculum subjects (K-12) through art, the Canadian Opera Company’s Outreach Programs, and 5 Elements 4 Girls - a camp which fosters self-esteem in teen girls. Jen leads numerous workshops directed at classroom educators and peer artists on the topic of bringing the arts into the classroom. She has recently produced Kick Start Arts!, a new educational DVD series designed to show teachers how to bring dance and drama into the classroom.
As a dance and theatre artist, Jen’s unique choreographic fusions have been performed in a variety of independent dance and theatre productions, fringe festivals and performance series and have been called “witty” (The Globe and Mail) and “the essence of performance...she dances with her words and speaks with her motions and it is not possible to separate the two.” (fFIDA Dance Forum) She has also directed numerous theatre productions, including her co-created bouffon piece Fable, which toured across Canada. Recently she performed with Motus O Dance Theatre in their children’s production “East of the Sun, West of the Moon”. She is thrilled to have performed the magically transforming “Prince-Bear” for children on tours of Newfoundland, Labrador, Northern Ontario, Vancouver, and now Southern Ontario.
Jen is co-founder and co-artistic director of Hub 14, a studio space in downtown Toronto devoted to the exploration and development of innovative dance and theatre.
Visit the website at http://hub14.org/jen_bio.html
Erica Bledsoe studied dance at Ryerson, The School of the Toronto Dance Theatre and York University. After school she became a dancer with Tanglewood Family Entertainment and ended up performing and touring all the major theatres of North America for the next five years. Franklin the Turtle, Caillou, Little Bear, Elliot Moose and other Canadian favourites were among the live shows she performed in. After retiring from the road, Erica became the US and International booking agent for multiple family entertainment acts for Paquin Entertainment including Famous People Players, Franklin the Turtle, Big Comfy Couch and more. She soon became the head of Family Entertainment for the agency and was charged with negotiating and licensing new family acts, including The Backyardigans and Max & Ruby, and to produce live stage shows for the roster. Erica recently worked as the Talent Coordinator for the Jerry Lewis Telethon in Los Angeles.