New York City (Party after fashion show at 79th Street Rotunda, Riverside Park)
Robert Sefcik
Photography
By the time this photograph was taken in 1976, many styles of music and dancing were emerging in New York City.
In the Bronx, DJ Kool Herc, who has been called the father of hip-hop, began collecting obscure records and blending them with local hits of the day. Noticing that the young dancers would wait until the instrumental sections of songs to dance, Herc started to connect three instrumental “breaks” in a technique he called the “merry-go-round,” and the dancers began to be known as break dancers.
Also in the South Bronx, as a reaction to many years of dancing the twist solo, people began “touch dancing,” which evolved into the Spanish hustle and the hustle.
Queens saw more interest in rock, with the advent of the glam group Kiss and the punk band the Ramones. While some bands such as Blondie oscillated between musical genres including disco, punk, reggae, and rap, others focused on one genre, disco. By the time of Studio 54, disco had been a popular dance form for several years, and everyone felt that America was dancing again—though not all to the same beat.
In the Bronx, DJ Kool Herc, who has been called the father of hip-hop, began collecting obscure records and blending them with local hits of the day. Noticing that the young dancers would wait until the instrumental sections of songs to dance, Herc started to connect three instrumental “breaks” in a technique he called the “merry-go-round,” and the dancers began to be known as break dancers.
Also in the South Bronx, as a reaction to many years of dancing the twist solo, people began “touch dancing,” which evolved into the Spanish hustle and the hustle.
Queens saw more interest in rock, with the advent of the glam group Kiss and the punk band the Ramones. While some bands such as Blondie oscillated between musical genres including disco, punk, reggae, and rap, others focused on one genre, disco. By the time of Studio 54, disco had been a popular dance form for several years, and everyone felt that America was dancing again—though not all to the same beat.
MEDIUM
Gelatin silver print
DATES
1976
DIMENSIONS
sheet: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)
frame: 15 3/8 × 20 3/8 × 1 3/4 in. (39.1 × 51.8 × 4.4 cm) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
Signed and dated in graphite, upper left verso
COLLECTIONS
Photography
ACCESSION NUMBER
85.94.4
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Cynthia K. Yanowitz
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Robert Sefcik (American, born 1948). New York City (Party after fashion show at 79th Street Rotunda, Riverside Park), 1976. Gelatin silver print, sheet: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Cynthia K. Yanowitz, 85.94.4. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: , 85.94.4_PS9.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 85.94.4_PS9.jpg., 2019
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT
© Robert Sefcik
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