A Contested Corporeality: Solidarity, Self-Fulfillment, and Transformation through African-Derived Dancing. Issue 1 (April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hammergren, Lena
• Editors: Damsholt, Inger; Hoppu, Petri
• Is Part Of: Dance research journal. Volume 52:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 7
• Page End: 19
• Publication Date: 2020-04
• Subjects: affective inquiry, -- African dances, -- African-American theatrical jazz dance, -- appropriation, -- corporeal consumption, -- embodiment, -- pedagogy; Dance -- Periodicals; 793.3
• DOI: 10.1017/S0149767720000029
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0149-7677

Abstract

Abstract : This article focuses on an analysis of ways in which conflicts between dancing as an act of solidarity, a tool for self-fulfillment, or as a form of an interpretative transformation have been played out in practicing dancing derived from different "African" cultures within a Swedish context. This period embraces African-American theatrical jazz dance during the 1960s and the more contemporary interest in dances from West African countries. The examples articulate modes of cultural appropriation. The question raised is whether a focus on embodied experience of dancing can subvert the practice of appropriation, or if the two approaches are contradictory.