The Spirit Moves - Brooklyn Mambo Competition (1950s)

Excerpt from part 3 of the out of print DVD. Shared for historical purposes. The Spirit Moves: A History of Black Social Dance on Film, 1900–1986 is a documentary film by Mura Dehn chronicling the evolution of African-American social dance throughout most of the 20th century. In its original form it consists of nearly six hours of rare archival footage shot over the course of thirty years. Since 1987 this complete version has only been available for viewing at a select few institutions (the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in New York City and the Smithsonian). In 2008 the first three parts of Dehn's work, totaling two hours, were remastered and released on DVD by Dancetime Publications. When the Savoy Ballroom closed its doors for the last time in 1958, Dehn choose to depart Harlem as she continued her work. As a result, Part 3 was filmed at Public School 28 in Brooklyn and the Palladium in Manhattan. In it Dehn witnesses a complete revolution in Lindy Hop, from its fall out of popularity in the early 1960s to its revival in the mid-1980s. --wikipedia ##### Reelblack's mission is to educate, elevate, entertain, enlighten, and empower through Black film. If there is content shared on this platform that you feel infringes on your intellectual property, please email me at [email protected] and [email protected] with details and it will be promptly removed.