Dance and Authoritarianism

Anthony Shay

Description

Everyone who viewed the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games can understand the power of dance and mass movement in the service of politics. While examples of such public performances and huge festivals are familiar in Nazi Germany, the former Soviet Union and today's North Korea, this new book addresses the lesser known examples of Spain under Franco, the Dominican Republic, Iran, Croatia and Uzbekistan, all of which have been subjected to various political regimes.

Dance and choreographed mass movement is the newest field of serious research in dance studies, particularly in the fields of politics and international relations and gender and sexuality. The author uses dance as a lens through which to study political, ethnic, and gendered phenomena so that the reader grasps that dance

constitutes an important non-verbal lens for the study of human behaviour.

This is the first study on dance and political science to focus specifically on authoritarian regimes.  It is a significant and original contribution to scholarship in the field, with the key studies drawn from a variety of different geographical and historical backgrounds.

In Spain under Franco, the Women's Section of the fascist Falange created a folk dance program that toured widely and through the performance of Spanish regional folk dances performed by virginal young Spanish women, embodying Catholic purity, permitted the regime to re-enter the world of polite diplomacy.

The Dominican Republic dictator, Rafael Trujillo, himself a gifted dancer, raised the popular folk and vernacular dance, the merengue, to the level of the "national" dance, which became a symbol of his regime and Dominican identity, which merengue it still maintains.

For over a thousand years, Croatia, has endured a series of authoritarian regimes – Hapsburg, Napoleon, the Yugoslav royal dictatorship, fascist, Josip Broz Tito's communist regime, Franjo Tudjaman – that ruled that small nation. For over 70 years, Lado, the National Folk Dance Ensemble of Croatia, has served as "the light of Croatian identity." Through its public performances of folk dances and music, Lado has become the face of a series of different regimes.

In Iran, dance became banned under the Islamic Republic after serving the Pahlavi regime as a form of representation of its peasant population and its historic Persian identity. Uzbekistan currently has expanded the role of the invented tradition of Uzbek "classical" dance, created during the soviet period, as a representation of Uzbek identity, in national festivals. Thus, through these examples, the reader will see how dance and mass movement have become important as political means for a variety of authoritarian regimes to represent themselves.

Primary readership will be dance scholars; particularly the growing number interested in ethno-identity dances of the second half of the twentieth-century

Will be of interest to academic libraries and departments, with valuable information and interest also for scholars of ethnology, anthropology, cultural studies, history.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Dance and Ethnicity


2. Dance and Nationalism


3. Iran: The Shah’s New Dance


4. Croatia: Lado—“Light of Croatian Culture”


5. Spain: Women’s Work—The Sección Femenina and Spanish Folk Dance


6. Dominican Republic: The Dictator’s Fancy Dance—Trujillo and Merengue


7. Uzbekistan: Old Lamps for New—The Creation of Uzbek “Classical” Dance

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Arts visuels
• Histoire des Arts
• Histoire des Arts
• Histoire des arts visuels
• ART
• Musique folk
• Cultural Studies
• Dance
• Folk dance
• Politics
• Folk
• Música tradicional
• Performing Arts

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 15 décembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789383546
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Dance and Authoritarianism

Dance and Authoritarianism
          
These Boots Are Made for Dancing
Anthony Shay
First published in the UK in 2021 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2021 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2021 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copy editor: Newgen
Cover designer: Alex Szumlas
Production manager: Jessica Lovett
Typesetting: Newgen
Frontispiece: Aman Folk Ensemble performs Bunjevačko
Momačko kolo. Author is in the center. (c. 1970). From the author’s collection.
Print ISBN 978-1-78938-352-2
ePDF ISBN 978-1-78938-353-9
ePUB ISBN 978-1-78938-354-6
To find out about all our publications, please visit www.intellectbooks.com
There you can subscribe to our e-newsletter, browse or download our current catalogue, and buy any titles that are in print.
This is a peer-reviewed publication.
This book is dedicated with profound thanks to my friend and colleague John Pennington.
Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Dance and Authoritarianism
1. Dance and Ethnicity
2. Dance and Nationalism: The Nation, the State, and the Nation-State
3. Iran: The Shah’s New Dance
4. Croatia: Lado—“Light of Croatian Culture”
5. Spain: Women’s Work—Franco’s Sección Femenina and Spanish Folk Dance
6. Dominican Republic: The Dictator’s Fancy Dance—Trujillo, Merengue, and Nationalism
7. Uzbekistan: Old Lamps for New—The Creation of Uzbek Classical Dance
Conclusion
References
Index
List of Figures
1 The Avaz International Theatre performs Dances from Serbia . Choreography: Anthony Shay. Photo: D. Young. From the author’s collection.
2 The Igor Moiseye Ballet performs Leto . Choreography: Igor Moiseyev. Photograph courtesy of the Igor Moiseyev Ballet and Elena Shcherbakova, artistic director.
3 Avaz International Dance Theatre performs a scene from Shatranj (chess), a choreographic depiction of the exchange of backgammon and chess between the Indian and Sasanian (Iran) courts. Choreography: Jamal. Music: Ahmad Pejman. From the author’s collection.
4 Avaz International Dance Theatre performs a ruchanitsa from Thrace, Bulgaria. Choreography: Anthony Shay. Photo: D. Young. From the author’s collection.
5 Igor Moiseyev Ballet performs Gopak, a Ukrainian Dance. Choreography: Igor Moiseyev. With permission from the Igor Moiseyev Ballet and Elena Shcherbakova, artistic director
6 Iran. Shateri. Choreography: Jamal. Photo: D. Young. From the author’s collection.
7 Iran. Avaz International Dance Theatre. Dastmali, a dance from Azerbaijan. Choreography: Anthony Shay. Photo: D. Young. From the author’s collection
8 Iran. Avaz International Dance Theatre performs Savaran, a classical Iranian dance. Lynette Houston, soloist. Photo: D. Young. From the author’s collection.
9 Iran. Bandari , dance from the Persian Gulf Region. Avaz International Dance Theatre. Choreography: Anthony Shay. Photo: D. Young. From the author’s collection.
10 Iran. Danc from the Caspian Sea province of Gilan depicting the rice harvest. Choreography: Jamal. Photo: D. Young. From the author’s collection.
11 Croatia. Dances of Posavina. Avaz International Dance Theatre. Choreography: Anthony Shay. Photo: D. Young. From the author’s collection.
12 Croatia. Podravina Wedding. Avaz International Dance Theatre. Choreography: Anthony Shay. Scene from the National Public Television special AMAN. 1977.
13 Croatia. Dances of Posavina. Avaz International Dance Theatre.
14 Croatia. Dances from Pokuplje. Avaz International Dance Theatre. Choreography: Anthony Shay. Photo: D. Young. From the author’s collection.
15 Croatia. Dance from Valpovo, Slavonia. Avaz International Dance Theatre. Choreography: Anthony Shay. Photo: D. Young. From the author’s collection.
16 Avaz International Dance Theatre performs a classical dance from the old Silk Road city of Samarqand. Choreography: Anthony Shay. Music: Jamal. Photo: D. Young. From the author’s collection.
17 Avaz International Dance Theatre performs an Uzbek dance from the Ferghana Valley region of Uzbekistan. Choreography: Ixchel Dimetral-Maerker. Photo: D. Young. From the author’s collection.
18 Avaz International Dance Theatre performs Katta Uyin, a classical Uzbek dance. Choreography: Jamal. Music: Jamal. Photo: D. Young. From the author’s collection.
Acknowledgments
Scholarship is never the work of a single individual. The scholar owes the mentors, like Sally Ann Ness, who oversaw my dissertation process over twenty years ago and whose influence I still feel in my work. Her scholarly rigor set a model for me. The scholar is also in debt to the scholarship of many nameless colleagues who give insight to a new idea or a new perspective. One of the greatest joys of completing a book is to acknowledge and thank the many individuals who supported, participated in, and aided in the production of a study.
First, I want to thank Pomona College and the many gifted colleagues with whom I have had the privilege to work. I especially want to express my gratitude to John Pennington, the chair of the Dance Program. His dedication to the field of dance, dance education, and dance scholarship is beyond generous. The college also provided a generous subvention for the production of the book, as well as travel grants to research sites and conferences. I also want to thank my students who ask challenging questions that often spark the ideas that lead to the questions I pose in my studies. It is they who make me strive harder.
I am ever grateful to the artists and administrators at Lado, the State Ensemble of Folk Dances and Songs of Croatia, for their continuing support and friendship over the past 50 years. They keep me abreast of all of their activities through publications and other media. I am still in debt to the generosity of the Igor Moiseyev Dance Company and their artistic director, Elena Shcherbakova.
Over the past sixty years the dancers, singers, and musicians of the Aman Folk Ensemble and the Avaz International Dance Theatre have provided inspiration and friendship. It is because of my work with them that I learned what it means to found and direct a large-scale folk dance ensemble. That experience informs my insights into the ins and outs of how state dance companies are maintained, the daunting challenges they face, and the intricacies of the behind-the-scenes activities that contribute to their success.
Bill Montrose, a former participant in the folk dance world and a friend, generously read the entire manuscript, proofread it, and provided thought-provoking suggestions for its enrichment. I am truly blessed for his insights and the care that he gave to its final shape.
Philip Nix read several parts of the text and offered generous suggestions for its improvement.
I am very grateful to the three anonymous readers whose wisdom informs the book. They made thoughtful suggestions, many of which I have incorporated into the study.
Jessica Lovett, my editor at Intellect Books, has been tireless in her support and supportive at every stage of its birth.
To my spouse, Jamal, I am ever indebted for his love and care, and his presence, which in this time of pandemic when I pen these words, reminds me of the beauty and joy I find in these challenging times.
Introduction: Dance and Authoritarianism
This is a study about how dance and politics intersect. More specifically, it addresses how many elements of politics—authoritarianism, ethnicity, and nationalism—interact with dance, because I argue that it is in a variety of authoritarian regimes, perhaps more than any other type of political entity, in which dance is frequently an important propagandistic vehicle for the government and its ideology. No matter how an authoritarian regime may act in reality, it invariably has what it calls an “ideology” to justify its existence. “Ideology operates with images as symbolic vehicles” (Wedeen 2019 : 164), and dance, as a non-verbal, embodied spectacle provides authoritarian regimes with highly idealized and politically positive images of the nation dressed in its Sunday clothes, redolent with ethnic and nationalist symbols, the massed dancers symbolizing mass political support for the state.
The former Yugoslavia is a good example: Following the savage ethnic strife and killing of World War II, especially between Serbs and Croats, Josip Broz Tito attempted to create a Yugoslav identity to replace those ethnic identities, with the symbol of the highway between Beograd and Zagreb called, not highway 1, but the highway of brotherhood and unity. Following the soviet model of the Igor Moiseyev Dance Company, the Yugoslav state founded three professional ensembles: Kolo in Serbia, Lado in Croatia, and Tanec in Macedonia. 1 These professional state folk dance ensembles embodied and symbolized “brotherhood and unity” ( bratstvo i jedinstvo ) through their all-Yugoslav programs, which included dances from all of the other republics, in addition to specializing in the dances and songs of their own respective republics. Unfortunately, Tito’s dream of Yugoslavism perished as the various republics went their own ways in the 1990s. Local ethnic identities of Serb, Croat, Macedonian, Slovenian, and Bosnian Muslim triumphed over the newer Yugoslav national identity (Maners 2008 ; Shay 2002 ).

Figure 1: The Avaz International Theatre performs Dances from Serbia . Choreography: Anthony Shay. Photo: D. Young. From the author’s collection.

State-supported dance ensembles provide their respective regimes with spectacularized images an