The ontology of twerk: from 'sexy' Black movement style to Afro-Diasporic sacred dance

The objective of this article is to develop an ontology of twerk that situates it within Black Atlantic choreographic modalities, including those of Afro-Diasporic religions. As a corrective to the pervasive stereotyping and appropriation of twerk, I place its normative performance within the cultural space of contemporary Black New Orleans. I furnish an overview of temporally proximate regional variations in the United States and locate its more remote antecedents in the participatory dances documented on North American plantations. Twerk also shares various morphological and thematic similarities with Caribbean and Latin American movement traditions that have promoted female sexual, economic, and political freedom. Of these, I take into special account Brazilian, Cuban, and Haitian dances sacred to Afro-Diasporic deities venerated for giving life and bearing witness to death. I conclude that twerk should be understood properly as part of a family of Black Atlantic dances that emerged from shared histories of domination.