SDHS: Ethnicity and Dance Working Group

Ethnicity and Dance Working Group

Chair: Joan L. Erdman
Contact: (T) 312-344-7530, (E) jerdman (at) colum (dot) edu

Anjali (Anne-Marie Gaston) dancing Bharatanatyam, India's oldest classical dance form. Photo by Tony Gaston

The Ethnicity and Dance Working Group comprises members of the Society of Dance History Scholars interested in the cultural diversity of the world’s dance traditions. Taking as its province dance and dance cultures from all parts of the world, this working group focuses on issues including aesthetics, ethnicity, fusion, history, and change.

Aesthetics. Is there an established aesthetic tradition? What are the aesthetic values? Who decides the criteria for evaluating a dance? Should audiences be taught indigenous criteria? Have performance or aesthetic values changed?
Ethnicity of Artists and Art. Are the artists "natives"? Should artists be from the tradition performed? How can we assess "authenticity"? Is art inherently ethnic? If so, how? Is a culture’s dance related to its language, its religion, its subsistence, its poetry, music, visual arts?
Fusion. What happens to ethnicity in fusion? Is every dance ethnic? What makes a dance "ethnic"?
History and Change. Who owns a dance or a tradition? How does modernization affect dance, and vice versa? Is there evidence of refinement over time? What are the influences of other dances, choreographies, or new settings? How does the move from ritual to stage affect dance traditions?

Considering these and other issues of ethnicity and dance, the group raises questions of identity and diaspora for dance, dancers, and dancing. What, for example, are the values of introducing literature of the African diaspora and African-derived dance into classroom discussion? What effect has tourism had on the authenticity of Mexican festivals in Oaxaca? How did the polka become an integral part of so many popular dance traditions? What are the differences when it is danced by Polish Americans, Swedish Americans, and Mexican Americans?

Everyone interested in such questions is invited to join the Ethnicity and Dance Working Group. To subscribe to our online discussion group, send an e-mail message to the following address: majordomo@lists.uoregon.edu. Leave the subject line blank. In the body of the message, type the following phrase: "subscribe ethnodance." For further information, contact the chair of the group by e-mail (jerdman (at) popmail (dot) colum (dot) edu)

Last updated 5 December 2001
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