The Body As Revolutionary Text: the Dance As Protest Literature in Latin America Ciencia Ergo Sum, Vol
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Ciencia Ergo Sum ISSN: 1405-0269 [email protected] Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México México Jaeck Marie, Lois The Body as Revolutionary Text: The Dance as Protest Literature in Latin America Ciencia Ergo Sum, vol. 10, núm. 1, marzo, 2003 Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México Toluca, México Disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=10410105 Cómo citar el artículo Número completo Sistema de Información Científica Más información del artículo Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal Página de la revista en redalyc.org Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto C IENCIAS HUMANAS Y DE LA CONDUCTA Lois Marie Jaeck* Recepción: junio 10 de 2002 Aceptación: septiembre 26 de 2002 El cuerpo como texto: el baile como Abstract. Paul Valéry, Antonin Artaud, * This paper was presented at the CALACS Congress. February 22-25, 2001. Antigua, literatura de protesta en Latinoamérica Isadora Duncan, James Collingwood and Guatemala. Resumen. Paul Valéry, Antonin Artaud, Isadora Frank Kermode all proposed that dance Department of Languages and Linguistics, Duncan y Frank Kermode sugirieron que los movements may function as a universal University of Saskatchewan. Saskatoon, Canada and Member of the Board of Directors (2000, movimientos de un baile pueden funcionar human language transcending the limitations 2001) of Dance Saskatchewan Inc. Saskatoon, como un lenguaje universal que supera las of the written or spoken word. If dance Canada. Tel: (306) 664-3511. limitaciones de la palabra escrita o dicha. Si el Email: [email protected] really does express and speak to the universal I would like to thank María Teresa Colombani, baile verdaderamente expresa los sentimientos soul inherent in humanity, it follows that Librarian/Resource Technician of the Dance del alma universal, que es parte integrante del dance is a powerful communicating medium Saskatchewan Resource Center, for her assis- tance in helping me locate video footage of ser humano, entonces el baile es un medio that can break down barriers, unite diverse Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, and dancers perfor- muy poderoso de comunicación que puede groups and promote social change. This ming the rhumba, merengue, samba and tango, derribar muros y fronteras, unir grupos paper argues that some class and racial to accompany this paper during my oral presen- tation at the CALACS Congress in Antigua, diversos de la humanidad y promover cambios struggles in Latin America have consciously Guatemala. sociales. Este artículo propone que algunas utilized the communicative power of dance luchas étnicas y de clases sociales en to further their goals: the rhumba in Cuba, Latinoamérica han utilizado conscientemente the merengue in the Dominican Repulbic, el poder comunicativo del baile para realizar the samba in Brazil, the tango in Argentina, sus propósitos: la rumba en Cuba, el merengue and Aztec dance in contemporary Mexico and en la República Dominicana, la samba en Brasil, the Southern United States. el tango en Argentina y el baile azteca en Key words: dance, protest literature, México y el sur de los Estados Unidos. rhumba, merengue, samba, tango, aztec dance. Palabras clave: baile, literatura de protesta, rumba, tango, samba, merengue, baile azteca. ance is a language of the body English philosopher R. G. Collingwood French theorist and poet Paul Valéry whose signified concepts, like suggested that “every kind of language compared the physical movements of Dthose of poetry and revo- is a specialized form of bodily gesture a dancer to a poetic image forged in lution, frequently elude expression and in this sense it may be said that words: “[…] un homme est penseur through conventional linguistic forms. dance is the mother of all languages” comme il est danseur, usant son esprit In the early twentieth century, the (Collingwood, 1938). In his Cahiers, the somme celui-ci de ses muscles et ses CIENCIA ergo sum, Vol. 10-1, marzo-junio 2003 43 C IENCIAS HUMANAS Y DE LA CONDUCTA the Argentinian tango and the Valéry, Artaud, Duncan, Collingwood and Kermode all proposed Mexican/Chicano twentieth century that dance movements may function as a universal human language revival of aztec dance as examples of transcending the limitations of the written or spoken word. dance forms whose evolution and popularity has been blatently linked to social movements: the Cuban Re- volution, the Dominican Republic’s nerfs” (1960: 334); just as the English literary critic Frank drive for self-definition in the post-Trujillo era, the Afro- Kermode, proposed that dance is “the obscure primitive Brazilian struggle for racial equality, the Argentine working ground from which modern poets draw strength for their class immigrants’ struggle for social acceptance in the early archaic art” (1976: 47). Dreaming of a “physical language” twentieth century, and Mexican American immigrant (Artaud, 1978) that would transcend the limitations of words workers’ struggle for social recognition, equality and justice. with pre-determined significations, the French playwright and Certainly Latin America is not the only place in the world philospher Antonin Artaud sought a “concrete language” (ibid.) where dance is linked to social movements; neither are the that would allow for the expression of “la Parole devant les above-mentioned dances the only examples of that mots” (the Word before words, Artaud, 1978). Although phenomenon. The utilization of dance as a ‘physical’ langua- Artaud never realized his dream through the form of avant- ge is a human system of communication that very likely garde expression he attempted “le Theatre de la Cruaté”, his characterizes all cultures past, present and future. American contemporary, dancer Isadora Duncan, succeeded Yvonne Daniel (1995) presents a very comprehensive in transposing her art to the level of social cultural revolution analysis of the ways that Fidel Castro’s regime has used the and the embodiment of the poetic spirit of humanity. As if rhumba to define, embody, and assert images of national in response to all of the above-mentioned theorists, Isadora and international identity. She sees rhumba signifying an declared that “I use my body as my medium, just as the ideal which the Revolution embodied: “equality with the writer uses his words[...]” (Duncan, 1981). working masses and an identity with its Afro-Latin heritage”: Valéry, Artaud, Duncan, Collingwood and Kermode all [...] rhumba has long been acquainted with workers, beginning proposed that dance movements may function as a universal with the slave, free black, mulatto and white workers of the human language transcending the limitations of the written nineteenth century. Although rhumba was considered African, or spoken word. If dance really does express and speak to Afro-Cuban, ‘baja cultura’ (low culture), obscene, or too sexual the universal soul inherent in humanity, it follows that dance by some Cubans before the Revolution, it has been aligned with is a powerful communicating medium that can break down notions of dignity, recognition, equality and inspiration since then. barriers, unite diverse groups and promote social change. In striving for social equality, the government has attempted to Robert Hodge and G. Kress (1979) proposed a theory of unify elements of the historically hierarchical system. Rhumba language “whose aim was to provide an illuminating account openly reveals the Revolution’s legal reality of nondiscrimination of verbal language as a social phenomenon”. In their later contrasted with historical cultural biases that the emphasized work, in 1988, they recognize the limitations of verbal common ancestry with blacks and denigrated equal association language and see “social structures and processes, messages between Cubans of African and non-African descent (see Martinez- and meanings as the proper standpoint from which to Alier, 1974: 1-20, 71-75; noted by Daniel, 1995: 117). attempt the analysis of meaning systems”. They stress that meaning resides so strongly in visual, aural, behavioural and If Daniel’s analysis of the revolutionary significance of other codes that “a concentration on words alone is not rhumba does indeed reflect Cuban lived reality, then I con- enough”; that “meaning is produced and reproduced under tend that the rhumba, as a popular dance form, functions specific social conditions, through specific material forms as a ‘physical’ language expressing Cuba’s ‘official message’ and agencies”. Keeping their premise in mind, I will attempt of social and racial equality. to illustrate that some class and racial struggles in Latin In Music and Black Ethnicity in the Dominican Republic (1994), America have consciously utilized the social codes of dan- Martha Ellen Davis extends the field of dance as social ce forms (their historical roots, movements, even the communication to the socio-historical significance of the ins- instruments playing the music to which the dance is per- truments producing dance music. In the case of the traditional formed) to further their goals. I will briefly present the Cuban merengue ensemble in the Dominican Republic, she sees its rhumba, the Dominican merengue, the Brazilian samba, components as representative of the hybrid nature of Domi- 44 JAECK, L. THE BODY AS REVOLUTIONARY TEXT... C IENCIAS HUMANAS Y DE LA CONDUCTA nican culture: the sounds of the Hohner button accordion country that tried to deny its African parentage for quite (evokative of European influence)