![]() Promoted as educational and social preparatory programs, area middle- and high-school girls are eagerly signed up by their parents or grandparents to participate in the balls. Local cultural organizations often team up with the alumni chapter of a Black sorority and organize the event months in advance of the actual ball. Today, Southern communities with historically Black colleges are known for holding several debutante balls during the spring season. I was skeptical, but my colleague, an esteemed member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority’s Zeta Pi Omega Chapter, was insistent and determined: the debutantes, their fathers, and their male escorts were to dance the waltz. And moreover, I thought, “why the waltz?” Of all the social dances, I didn’t see how the waltz would work for these young African-American women it seemed too old, too stilted, and too European for this millennial generation. Cotillions drew criticism and scorn from feminists decades ago who claimed that they were sexist and highly exclusive. I thought these occasions, where debutantes are presented to the public by their family to be decorated and accepted by society, were strictly for the White upper class, particularly in the South. ![]() ![]() When one of my colleagues asked me to teach the waltz to a handful of debutantes for their cotillion, I was a bit surprised. ![]()
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