ring shout

noun

1. a group dance of West African origin introduced into parts of the southern U.S. by Black revivalists, performed by shuffling counterclockwise in a circle while answering shouts of a preacher with corresponding shouts, and held to be, in its vigorous antiphonal patterns, a source in the development of jazz.

ring-shout

noun

1. a West African circle dance that has influenced jazz, surviving in the Black churches of the southern US

Word History and Origins

Origin of ring shout¹

An Americanism dating back to 1930–35

Example Sentences

Book examples include Ring Shout, by P. Djèlí Clark, in which the KKK is made up of literal monsters; The City We Became, by N.K.

From Slate

The segment culminates in a ring shout, a call-and-response circle that enslaved Africans developed to preserve their heritage while strategically not offending their white captors.

From New York Times

In February, Simon was at the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the first appearances of his “Four Black American Dances,” a romp through a ring shout, a waltz, a tap dance and a praise break.

From New York Times

The ring shout, he asserted, was “the oldest African American performance tradition on the North American continent.”

From New York Times

He noted that the ring shout, once on the verge of extinction, has in recent years been performed by his group in Washington at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

From New York Times