The politics and poetics of dance by Susan A. Reed

Susan Reed analyzes and critiques the different aspects of dance in culture. Her focus on colonialism, nationalism, women and sexuality, and feminism intrigued me to the subject of dance anthropology. Reed discusses the “recontextualization” and the domestication of moves and styles of a particular dance, and its effects on the culture’s view of themselves. She relates this to Marta Savigliano’s complex research on the tango in Argentina and the process of its “auto-exoticization” in France. Savigliano defines auto-exoticization as the process by which the colonized come to represent themselves to themselves through the lenses of the colonizers – or in this case, the neo-colonizers. Dance masters in Paris standardized the tango, simplifying and making it suitable to “cosmopolitan aesthetic sensibilities.”
Reed goes on to discuss gender and dance, and how culturally accepted gender roles can either be emphasized or reinterpreted through movement and costume. She uses the Cuban rumba as an example where men exhibit their strength, courage and bravado. She also cites examples of dances in Africa where gender roles are crossed and mixed in order to portray feelings of homoeroticism, competitiveness, or temporary release from their assigned roles in society. Her extensive study on women and sexuality in dance discusses how dances performances can exhibit and generate gender and class conflicts regarding the appropriateness of sexually provocative dance movements for women. She cites Senegalese dancing as having conflicted perceptions of women’s sexuality. “While traditional dancing is considered to be ‘women’s business,’ dancing is also considered risky for a woman’s reputations, particularly after marriage.”
The last category Reed discusses is movement and body in dance. She discusses the “agentive” nature of dance, and how it is often linked to ideas of resistance and control. She also refers to Novak’s research on dance as an “art-sport” and her attention to historicizing the body in culture, and to Barbara Browning’s exploration of “bodily writing.”
This multitude of perspectives on dance showed me how inclusive and exclusive dance can be in different cultures. It also brought forth the idea that dance can be used to convey messages not only through costumes, movements, and themes, but also through history and interpretations.

Tewa Indian Ritual: Native Aesthetics by Anya Peterson Royce

Royce writes about the dance rituals of the Tewa Indians, one of the six groups of Pueblo Indians. She writes how the Tewa dance for both ritualistic purposes and for crowds of tourists in order to sell local crafts. The dancers’ skill is very important in the Tewa society. “Ability, rather than status associated with a social or political role, is extremely important in selecting dancers for particular roles.” The “roles” Royce is talking about can include anything from maidens to animals. Tewa Indians place great importance on time. Time has two dimensions in their society: ritual time, which refers to the larger cycle of agriculture and hunting, and secular time, which refers to work and the life needs of people.
The Tewa Indians have also adopted new dances, like the Matachines, which is a hybrid of European and indigenous dance and musical elements. The dance is performed in pueblos at Christmas. “The Matachines dance is probably the most significant single ceremony from the outside that was adopted by the Tewa but their history is one of continuous interaction and selective borrowing.”
Dancing for tourists has also become a large part of Tewa society. Royce discusses the “ceremonials”, an Anglo-organized event in which Indians dance for outside audiences. Whenever dances are done outside of the pueblo, or plaza, the choreography is drastically changed. Segments are made shorter, costumes are made more flamboyant and colorful, and the dances overall cater to the outsiders’ stereotypes of Tewa Indians.

“(Up)Staging the Primitive" by Richard Green

Green describes the life and works of dancer and anthropologist Pearl Primus, and her attempt at bringing together “body politics and political bodies.” Primus used art as a means of articulating a socio-historical identity, and also as a means of advancing her Negro race. While Primus was in high school in the 1930s, Marcus Garvey was raising consciousness for his “back to Africa” movement. As a parallel to Garvey, Pearl Primus returned to Africa symbolically through her dances. She aimed to claim that American Negroes do possess a rich cultural heritage. Primus started her career through The New Dance Group. As an American Negro, anthropologist, and social-protest dancer, she offered a “counter-hegemonic narrative of identity by placing the Negro on the grand stage of inherited social tradition.” Although Primus was always seen as a Negro dancer first and her pride in Negro-ness affected the way in which she was perceived despite the character she was portraying, her sheer talent as a modern dancer has not been overlooked. The representations and re-constructions of Primus’ pieces against segregation, lynching, and cultural denigration are what brings her legacy and life dreams alive.
Later in the piece, Green raises important questions about the process of the black American’s exclusion and also the terms on which inclusion is permitted. She questions integration and its functioning in reestablishment of hierarchical relationships.

Dancing with the Virgin by Deidre Sklar

Based in New Mexico, this book focuses on Sklar’s own experiences while she was submerged in the Mexican culture, and her adaptation to new ways of being in the world. As a Jew from Brooklyn, Sklar’s experiences in a new culture seem out of place at first. She documents the traditions surrounding the fiesta devoted to the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe. This fiesta was originally five to six days long but now goes on for three days, during which people reenact the stories of the Virgin. These reenactments depicted the contradictions and multiple layers of their complex society.
Sklar soon realizes that understanding the traditions and actions of her “host” families do not come from merely studying them extensively. One day as she was kneeling in front of the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, she felt a sudden sense of reverence. Although she was still that Jew from Brooklyn, she began to understand how everyone else felt in this community. In other words, she gained access into their personal understandings of this festival.
Reading this Sklar’s documentation of another country’s festivities was a real eye opener. Her depiction of how the people of New Mexico sediment their memories through one generation to the next, and her observations as someone completely new to the culture made me think about how people from other cultures could view our traditions and festivals in a different way.

Among the Jasmine Trees by Jonathan Shannon

Among the Jasmine Trees is a documentation and immersion in Syrian music and musical culture. It gives personal accounts of music in small restaurants in Aleppo and Damascus, but also analyzes religious singing in Mosques and the personas of the artists that sing the Q’uranic verses, or dhikir’s.
I really loved reading this book and engaging myself in Syrian culture. Not only were the nuances of small restaurants and intimate gatherings relatable to me because of their similarities to Indian culture, the style of writing itself made the depictions more relatable. Small descriptions such as the conversation between you and Sabri Moudallal made me smile and also gave me the impression that great vocalists and religious figures have multiple dimensions. “…We talk about sundry things: how when he traveled to Europe he found it strange that people on buses there are so absorbed in reading newspapers and books that n one talks to anyone else; how the great ‘Umar al-Batsh used to charge his students half a lira for lessons but never charge him because he was his favorite…”(p.188). Descriptions of the different ways of describing one’s singing voice showed to me how important of a part music plays in Syrian culture. The mere poetry in those descriptions showed the amount of importance Syrians place on the effects of music.
Watching the videos of Sabah Fakhri and others in class greatly enhanced my reading of this book.

Gender, Location, and Tradition: A Comparison of Two Papua New Guinean Contemporary Artists By Jacquelyn A. Lewis-Harris

Harris begins her article with citing the two types of contemporary art prominent in Papua New Guinea (PNG): the “arts gallery” faction and the “neotraditional” group. The first group uses foreign media and styles that are directly influenced by Western art. The artists that produce these works are usually graduates of universities or government schools. Neotraditionalist artists use functional village art forms or traditional ritual objects in their work. Harris states, “the majority of neotraditional art is sold in the international artifact and handcraft market, and only a small portion is produced for domestic consumption.” Both of these categories are used to preserve the traditional forms of ceremonies and arts as a way of attracting much desired tourist income.
Two artists are compared in this article are Saun Anti and Wendi Choulai. Saun Anti was a highly regarded carver from Indabu village. His art began to threaten the cult’s spiritual power and authority because he was reintroducing an “old” form that was not sanctioned by current societal members. As a holder of sacred traditions and a member of high standing in his tambaran, Anti’s spiritual influences in his sculptures posed a possible threat to the power of his tambaran cult.
Wendi Choulai is another artist of PNG. She was the first Solien Besena female who graduated from the National Arts School, and conveyed her mixed heritage in her paintings. She challenged gender roles in her society and although she was forced to respond to clan, national, and international concerns, she was successful in negotiating her way through conflicts and obstacles.
Reading about Anti and Choulai gave me a broader perspective about the trials and tribulations of being a contemporary artist in PNG. They not only have to respect traditions and rituals in their individual cults, but the also have to keep up with the ever-developing world-art world.

The Postcolonial Virtue of Aboriginal Art from Bathurst and Melville Islands By Eric Venbrux

Venbrux focuses on the Tiwi artists from Bathurst and Melville Islands in northern Australia. He explores the problem of cultural empowerment amongst the Aboriginal community and painters. In 1959, seventeen Tiwi grave posts were displayed in the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. This signified an important turning point of Aboriginal works from ethnographic artifacts to fine art. As Aboriginal art began receiving more recognition, their sense of national identity grew. However, the majority of Australians did not share the same sentiment. They believe that Australian art has begun to automatically mean Aboriginal art.
Non-urban Aboriginal producers or contemporary art are encouraged to created works that express regional variation in order to be better suited for tourist consumers. Venbrux states that the commoditization of art has been a long-standing cultural practice in the Tiwi Islands. Therefore, when commissioned to create a piece of work, artists never want to risk being paid less than they deserve. The Aborigines’ entrance into the international political and art scenes is said to help improve “Australia’s international cultural profile,” whether or not non-Aboriginal Australians like it. However, some think that their economic and political difficulties could put a stain on Australia’s international image.
Venbrux goes on to talk about Charles P. Mountford and his journey and observations in Tiwi society. Mountford commissioned Tiwi artists to paint their myths and legends to provide a visual aid to their oral stories.
The increased interest in Aboriginal art has posed both non-Aboriginal Australians and Aboriginal societies with problems. It has caused many societies such as the Tiwi to assimilate with a broader “Aboriginal” style of painting. However, this assimilation has also allowed them to gain a bigger influence in national matters and in the international scene.