Fosse & JSettes

Fosse & J-Settes

Jaquel Knight, who choreographed "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" expands on two major movement sources.

They are:

1) "Mexican Breakfast." Bob Fosse choreographed this number for his wife/dancer Gwen Verdon. It was performed on the Ed Sullivan show 1969.

(walk it out) Version

2) J-setting: a style of movement attributed to the Jackson State University Prancing J-settes. Their style of movement morphed into a style of club dancing popular in predominantly gay nightclubs in the south.

Bob Fosse and J-Setting

Beyoncé’s choreographer, Frank Gatson, was considering a movement style for Beyoncé’s video but was not sure what it was. He hired Jaquel Knight, a 19 year old dancer-choreographer from Atlanta in order to further investigate the style in question: J-setting.

The term J-setting is derived from The Prancing Jaycettes, the originally all female dance line of Jackson State University’s renowned marching band, ‘Sonic Boom of the South.’ In 1970, majorette Shirley Middleton requested that the dancers be allowed to ditch their batons, allowing freedom for more complex movements. A Vibe magazine article from February 2009 names Demorris Adams from Tunica, Mississippi as the first male Jaycette, who stepped in at a performance in 1997 when the line was one member short. According to Adams, he was well received at his first performance: “The crowd went crazy…I was not effeminate. I was very masculine, so that is what made them so crazy,” (Dean). Former students and game attendees affirm thatin the early nineties JSU men crowded the sidelines during practice, trying to pick up the dance moves, and out dance the girls. These fans of j-setting would bring the sets of eight counts they learned back thome and show them off in the nightclubs of Jackson, Memphis, and Atlanta.

In addition to the You Tube videos of Beyoncé fans j-setting in their living rooms, there is a whole other constellation of videos online from gay cultural events in the south (see Atlanta Gay Pride Parade in 2008) where teams of men j-sette against each other. In an online response to the February 2009 Vibe article on the presence of J-setting in Beyoncé’s video, one former j-setter explained, “What they [male students] saw the J-settes do in the stands they would learn and display it in the gay clubs. That’s how it became termed “J-setting” because back then the guys only imitated the J-settes. They did exactly what the J-settes did. As time progressed and more guys from different parts of the country caught on to this 'Jsetting' dance crave. Yhey began creating squads of their own that didn’t imitate the J-settes. (Memphis Elite, Detroit, Dallas Diamonds, XMEN , J-Five….) But the term “J-setting” was so heavy and that’s what the gay scence knew this particular dance style as; the name continued. There were some squads that didn’t even like the Jsettes style of dance. XMEN for example imitated the Orchesis. Music City All Stars imitated the Sophisticated Ladies of TSU. But the term J-setting was the only name that this particular dance style was referenced to. Its quite funny when I think about it. Now TODAY if you would go to a gay club and see these guys in action the Prancing Jsettes probably wouldn’t even come to mind. The choreography is nothing like you would ever see. Now its hip hop, ballet, jazz, crumping, and every other dance style you can think of combined into one. Its something that definitely needs to be exposed but not by the title 'Jsetting' because it is so far from the Jsettes…. I say all this to say that what the guys do in the club PRESENT DAY is not Jsetting. Now 'Bucking' would be a great term to reference it as. The term Jsetting just has been used for so long its hard to start calling it something else” (DancingIsMe, Feb 17 2009).

The term “bucking” isn’t new. Practitioners attribute the style to Memphis in the 80's, describing it as a Dirty South version of the smooth, illusionist sliding of west coast electric boogaloo. The dance term bucking, suggesting the abrupt up-rock of a horse is a dance term indigenous to America; it has been around since West Africans were first imported as slaves. The Buck and Wing, or The Buck was a common slave dance. Some dance historians have traced the steps of this dance to the Chica dance common in the West Indian Islands, the first new world stop for most imported slaves. The Buck is one of the many fundamental movement themes introduced by West African slaves that has been sampled, satirized, and spread as part of the development of African American vernacular dance as synonymous with popular dance in general.