Dance, Human Rights, and Social Justice: Dignity in Motion

by Naomi Jackson (Editor), Toni Shapiro-Phim (Editor), Germaine Acogny (Contribution by), Marjorie Agosín (Contribution by), Gaby Aldor (Contribution by)

Overview

Dance, Human Rights, and Social Justice: Dignity in Motion presents a wide-ranging compilation of essays, spanning more than 15 countries. Organized in four parts, the articles examine the regulation and exploitation of dancers and dance activity by government and authoritative groups, including abusive treatment of dancers within the dance profession; choreography involving human rights as a central theme; the engagement of dance as a means of healing victims of human rights abuses; and national and local social/political movements in which dance plays a powerful role in helping people fight oppression.

These groundbreaking papers—both detailed scholarship and riveting personal accounts—encompass a broad spectrum of issues, from slavery and the Holocaust to the Bosnian and Rwandan genocides to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; from First Amendment cases and the AIDS epidemic to discrimination resulting from age, gender, race, and disability. A range of academics, choreographers, dancers, and dance/movement therapists draw connections between refugee camp, courtroom, theater, rehearsal studio, and university classroom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810861497
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/06/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	398
Sales rank:	1,014,962
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Naomi Jackson, Ph.D. in performance studies, is associate professor in the Department of Dance at Arizona State University. She is the author of Converging Movements: Modern Dance and Jewish Culture at the 92nd Street Y (2002).

Toni Shapiro-Phim, Ph.D. in cultural anthropology, is director of research and archiving at the Khmer Arts Academy in Takhmao, Cambodia. She is the co-author of Dance in Cambodia (1999).

Table of Contents

Preface Naomi Jackson ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction Naomi Jackson Toni Shapiro-Phim xv

Part 1 Regulatory Moves

1 Roadblock (Journal Excerpt, November 26, 2001) Maysoun Rafeedie 3

2 Practical Imperative: German Dance, Dancers, and Nazi Politics Marion Kant 5

3 Plunge Not into the Mire of Worldly Folly: Nineteenth-Century and Early Twentieth-Century Religious Objections to Social Dance in the United States Elizabeth Aldrich 20

4 Dancing Chinese Nationalism and Anticommunism: The Minzu Wudao Movement in 1950s Taiwan Ya-ping Chen 34

5 Animation Politique: The Embodiment of Nationalism in Zaire Joan Huckstep 51

6 Dance and Human Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia Anthony Shay 67

7 Right to Dance: Exotic Dancing in the United States Judith Lynne Hanna 86

8 The Hidden Authoritarian Roots in Western Concert Dance Robin Lakes 109

9 Human Rights and Dance through an Artist's Eyes Yunyu Wang 131

Part 2 Choreographing Human Rights

10 Fagaala Germaine Acogny 137

11 Your Fight Is Our Fight: Protest Ballets in Sweden Cecilia Olsson 140

12 Dancing in Paradise with Liz Lerman on 9/11 Linda Frye Burnham 154

13 What Was Always There Ralph Lemon 156

14 Cambodian Dance and the Individual Artist Sophiline Cheam Shapiro 166

15 Dancing against Burning Grounds: Notes on From Sita: Lament, Fury, and a Plea for Peace Ananya Chatterjea 168

16 Human Rights Issues in the Work of Barro Rojo Arte Escenico Cesar Delgado Martinez translated and edited by Nancy Lee Ruyter 188

17 Requiem Lemi Ponifasio 200

18 Sardono: Dialogues with Humankind and Nature Sal Murgiyanto 204

19 Adib's Dance Gaby Aldor 212

Part 3Healing, Access, and the Experience of Youth

20 Japanese Butoh and My Right to Heal Judith Kajiwara 217

21 Dancing in our Blood: Dance/Movement Therapy with Street Children and Victims of Organized Violence in Haiti Amber Elizabeth Lynn Gray 222

22 Interactions between Movement and Dance, Visual Images, Etno, and Physical Environments: Psychosocial Work with War-Affected Refugee and Internally Displaced Children and Adults (Serbia 2001-2002) Allison Jane Singer 237

23 Sudanese Youth: Dance as Mobilization in the Aftermath of War David Alan Harris 253

24 Community Dance: Dance Arizona Repertory Theatre as a Vehicle for Cultural Emancipation Mary Fitzgerald 256

25 Doing Time: Dance in Prison Janice Ross 270

26 Balance and Freedom: Dancing in from the Margins of Disability Wyatt Bessing 285

Part 4 Kinetic Transgressions

27 Exposure and Concealment Nicholas Rowe 291

28 The Dance of Life: Women and Human Rights in Chile Marjorie Agosin translated by Janice Molloy 296

29 Mediating Cambodian History, the Sacred, and the Earth Toni Shapiro-Phim 304

30 No More Starving in the Attic: Senior Dance Artists Advocate a Canadian Artists' Heritage Resource Centre Carol Anderson 323

31 Dance and Disability Alito Alessi Sara Zolbrod 329

32 Monuments and Insurgencies in the Age of AIDS David Gere 333

33 If I Survive: Yehudit Arnon's Story, as Told to Judith Brin Ingber 342

Index 345

About the Editors and Contributors 353

Editorial Reviews

A provocative collection of essays....The editors have brought together a diverse collection of essays that, when read together, situate dance centrally within ideological discussions of what constitutes notions of freedom and social justice. More importantly, the essays will also spark discussion on who gets to define such concepts. Dance, Human Rights, and Social Justice is an ambitious and inclusive anthology that marks an important resource for anyone interested in dance, politics, and social activism.

Dance Research Journal

Jackson and Shapiro-Phim are the first to focus an investigation so cohesively on the political implications of movement. The result is a ground-breaking anthology that repositions understandings of the fundamental ways in which the dancer's body serves a range of human rights agendas from the oppressive to the corporate-controlled, nationalist, and liberatory. Dance, Human Rights, and Social Justice asks readers to re-evaluate the power of dance as a staged form of resistance. In the process, contributors reveal in more subtle ways the complexity of defining human rights. This book is of interest to an audience much broader than just those interested in the performing arts.

Southwest Journal Of Cultures

Jackson and Shapiro-Phim are the first to focus an investigation so cohesively on the political implications of movement. The result is a ground-breaking anthology that repositions understandings of the fundamental ways in which the dancer's body serves a range of human rights agendas from the oppressive to the corporate-controlled, nationalist, and liberatory. Dance, Human Rights, and Social Justice asks readers to re-evaluate the power of dance as a staged form of resistance. In the process, contributors reveal in more subtle ways the complexity of defining human rights. This book is of interest to an audience much broader than just those interested in the performing arts.--Southwest Journal Of Cultures, Summer Post 2, July 2009

A provocative collection of essays....The editors have brought together a diverse collection of essays that, when read together, situate dance centrally within ideological discussions of what constitutes notions of freedom and social justice. More importantly, the essays will also spark discussion on who gets to define such concepts. Dance, Human Rights, and Social Justice is an ambitious and inclusive anthology that marks an important resource for anyone interested in dance, politics, and social activism.--Dance Research Journal

From the Publisher