{"id":90,"date":"2012-02-15T21:04:11","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T02:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idiosyncrazy.org\/blog\/?p=90"},"modified":"2012-02-15T21:04:11","modified_gmt":"2012-02-16T02:04:11","slug":"j-setting-marches-northward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idiosyncrazy.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/15\/j-setting-marches-northward\/","title":{"rendered":"J-Setting Marches Northward"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Hello folks,<\/p>\n

This past summer, journalist Bruce Walsh wrote a short series of articles centered around our work this summer on Private Places<\/em><\/strong>, then called The Flight Attendants Project<\/em>.\u00a0 Below is the second article from Bruce, in which he explores some of the origins of J-Sette’s emergence into popular culture.\u00a0 J-Sette movement has been used as research for the Private Places <\/em><\/strong>project.<\/p>\n

*also, check out our One-Year Vlog Project<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

J-Setting Marches Northward<\/strong>
\n– Bruce Walsh<\/p>\n

The tiny staff of idiosynCrazy productions has done their best to cool the only slightly air-conditioned Live Arts Festival rehearsal space on Fifth and Poplar streets. They\u2019ve closed the loading dock of this converted industrial building, desperately saving as much cool air as they can in the vast expanse, where fifteen Philadelphia dancers attempt to keep pace with Dante Beacham.<\/p>\n

The barefoot twenty-four-year-old is the only person onstage without formal dance training. Yet today he is, without a doubt, at the head of the class.<\/p>\n

Beacham leads them through a series of bold, sharp\u2014almost cheerleader-esque\u2014rapid-fire movements, all to a driving eight-count beat. After a water-break only a third of the dancers return to the stage. The rest watch, out of breath, as the remaining few complete the two-minute routine. When they do applause echoes off the rafters and dancers collapse on the floor in victory, as if they\u2019ve just broken the ribbon at a distance race.<\/p>\n

These Philly dancers have just had their first intensive exposure to J-Setting, from one of the current leaders on the J-Sette scene. Local choreographer Jumatatu Poe brought Beacham to Philadelphia to incorporate this club favorite into his latest work, The Flight Attendants Project<\/em>, which is being developed with the assistance of a $50,000 grant from Dance Advance, an arm of the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.<\/p>\n

Most Americans have only been exposed to J-Setting through the 2008 Beyonc\u00e9 video, \u201cSingle Ladies (Put a Ring On It),\u201d in which choreographers Frank Gatson and JaQuel Knight appropriated the hallmarks of the style. Even Poe admits that the video sparked his fascination with the scene. In a 2009 interview with Vibe Magazine<\/em>, Knight explained that he, Beyonc\u00e9, and Gatson researched J-Setting via YouTube. If so, they were likely influenced by Beacham. His videos are some of the most popular J-Setting clips out there. In an interview with the London Sunday Times<\/em>, Beyonc\u00e9 put it this way: \u201c[We] added the down-South thing\u2014it\u2019s called J-Setting, where one person does something and the next person follows.\u201d<\/p>\n

That \u201cdown-South thing\u201d is more accurately described as a distinctive feature of Southern, African-American gay culture. And many in that community were irked to see it borrowed without a please, thank you, or even an acknowledgment of where it came from.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel as though [Knight] took credit for something that he has no idea about,\u201d says Beacham, now sitting in the cooler confines of the Live Arts Festival\u2019s office. \u201cI feel like he went online, researched it, and took it as [if] he really knew what it was. I would love for someone from this community to be able to bring it to the world, and be able to explain what it is and what it means to us. Instead we have [Knight] trying to explain where it comes from. It bothers me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fairness, explaining where J-Setting comes from is no easy task, and even the scene leaders are somewhat fuzzy on the details.<\/p>\n

For starters, the form didn\u2019t begin in the clubs, but on a Mississippi football field.<\/p>\n

In 1971, the majorette section of the Jackson State University Marching Band abandoned baton twirling in favor of dancing to pop songs by James Brown and others. A huge hit with the crowd, the majorettes started calling themselves the Prancing Jaycettes. (In 1982, they changed the spelling to J-Settes.)<\/p>\n

Their trademark eight-count, lead-and-follow groove was imitated\u2014and later interpreted and evolved\u2014by men in the surrounding area. Eventually, this style\u2014 called \u201cbucking\u201d in and around Jackson\u2014started to appear in clubs across the South.<\/p>\n

By 2000 the dance was synonymous with Southern gay culture. Dozens of formal male J-Sette teams competed at Atlanta and Memphis Pride festivals\u2014and still do. Beacham\u2019s team, Mystic Force, is one of the top squads going.<\/p>\n

For many gay men in the South, J-Setting is a defiant, proud expression of sexuality, amidst some of the most repressive areas of the country. At any given Jackson State football game, groups of men lead their own J-Sette dances in the stands. \u201cI\u2019ve never done it [at the games]. I\u2019m afraid to do it, to be honest with you,\u201d says Beacham, who currently attends Jackson State. \u201cI try to avoid violence, and I know some people are not as accepting as others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will see that, yes, every now an then we will see somebody imitating us in the stands,\u201d says Kathryn Pinkston-Worthy, the current Prancing J-Sette coach and former 70s-era captain.<\/p>\n

For the leader of the Prancing J-Settes, there is only a tacit acknowledgement of their interpretation in gay culture, and an extremely vague understanding of the larger phenomenon.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I\u2019m told\u2014and I have never been there to witness any of it\u2014but I\u2019m told they have different groups in clubs, and they have uniforms, and they imitate the J-Settes,\u201d says Pinkston-Worthy with the emphasis on imitate<\/em>. \u201cThat must be where this \u2018J-Setting\u2019 comes from, because we definitely don\u2019t call it that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imagine her surprise when she turned on the television to find Beyonc\u00e9 utilizing the club-infused interpretation of a J-Sette strut: \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh wait a minute, haven\u2019t I seen this before?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Hello folks, This past summer, journalist Bruce Walsh wrote a short series of articles centered around our work this summer on Private Places, then called The Flight Attendants Project.\u00a0 Below is the second article from Bruce, in which he explores … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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