Ethno Identity Dance for Sex, Fun and Profit Staging Popular Dances Around the World

Anthony Shay Ethno Identity Dance for Sex, Fun and Profi t

Staging Popular Dances Around the World Anthony Shay Pomona College Claremont, USA

ISBN 978-1-137-59317-7 ISBN 978-1-137-59318-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-59318-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016947011

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Cover illustration: Mario Casillas performs Ballos from Chios

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This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London. This Book is for my Dear Friend Mario Casillas

PREF ACE

The germ of the idea for this book came from participating in the “Folk and Popular Dance Research Working Group” at the conference, Dance ACTions—Tradition and Transformations, held June 8–11, 2013 in Trondheim, Norway, jointly sponsored by the Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS) and the Nordic Foundation for Dance Research (NOFOD). The group workshop met on two consecutive days, and discussed many ideas on the questions and issues, terminologies, and meth- ods in the research of folk and popular dance. The group leader, Finnish dance scholar Petri Hoppu, set the tone for the ensuing discussions: “We are struggling to defi ne and articulate perceptions of what we are viewing” (June 9, 2013). That statement was the starting point for the important discussions that followed, and for this study. These conversations caused me to rewrite my conference paper in order to follow Hoppu’s exhortation—to defi ne and articulate what I have viewed and experienced over the course of my artistic and scholarly life. I fi rst proposed the term “ethno-identity dances” in the paper I delivered at that conference, and upon which I have partially based the Introduction to this volume. It generated several interesting and intense questions and comments, indicating the importance of investigating Hoppu’s opening statement to the workshop, which encouraged me to write this book. One of the most interesting questions was whether this category includes the work of the early barefoot dancers such as Ruth St. Denis? I assured the interlocutor that it did because St. Denis and others like her referred to dances of traditional origins in their choreographies, no matter how little their movements resembled them. In addition, the classifi cation applies to

vii viii PREFACE some of the work of contemporary choreographers, such as Mark Morris, who delve deeply into various forms of traditional dance, such as classical Indian dance genres, to seek inspiration and movement motifs and styles, and to display them in such a way that the works can be viewed as a form of ethno-identity dance. The aim of articulating the term “ethno-identity dance” is to describe and analyze within a single terminology the genre of staged and presentational traditional, folk, and popular dance, and to demonstrate the multiple ways in which it constitutes a single phenomenon with many reasons for its performance and its attraction for audiences: sex, fun and profi t among others. As I use the term in this volume, “ethno-identity dance” genres are used primarily for purposes of representation and invariably refer to some form of dance that is associated with ethnic identity. Individuals create ethno-identity dances self-consciously, unlike “dance in the fi eld”, to echo the title of Theresa Buckland’s 1999 book, which most often forms an organic element of traditional life. As a clear example, the reader can read- ily see this in the sequence of Irish dancing from step dancing through competition dancing, a highly formalized outgrowth of step dancing which was developed in the early part of the twentieth century in response to the growth of Irish nationalism, to the theatrical shows of Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, which stunned the world with their high technical level. From its fi rst performance in 1994, Riverdance became a pow- erful engine in Ireland’s economic miracle during the 1990s because of the show’s worldwide fame and popularity. The salient point here is the intents and motives that people used, and continue to use, to create the later genres from traditional step dancing. Individuals seeking to answer crucial demands of nationalism created Irish competition dancing, then other individuals seeking profi t and perhaps aesthetic gratifi cation developed Riverdance . Thus, as Andriy Nahachewsky (2016) noted of staged folk dance, the two manifestations of Irish step dancing contain the important elements of refl exivity and intent. Refl exivity means that Irish competition and performance dancing can be categorized as ethno-identity because they are used for a variety of representational motives, and because they require planning and think- ing to prepare them for presentation to audiences. This in contrast to the unself-conscious folk and vernacular dances, such as Irish step dancing, that individuals have performed in celebratory and social contexts, and to which the other two genres explicitly or implicitly refer. PREFACE ix

I also noted that at least one-third of the papers and several presenta- tions during the Trondheim conference addressed questions of staged, presentational folk and popular dance. It was and is a much discussed topic, and yet dance scholars have yet to successfully articulate the various degrees, contexts, and defi nitions required to distinguish traditional regional folk dances, classical dances, and other traditional dances done in their original contexts from dancing lifted out of those traditional contexts, generally for purposes of presentation and representation. Moreover, more work needs to be done to investigate the relationship between dance in the fi eld and its presentational offspring.

PARALLEL TRADITIONS In Choreographic Politics , I introduced the notion of parallel traditions, attempting to bring forth the idea that all of the genres that refer back to dance in the fi eld exist on a conceptually equal plane alongside the original context. They all contain a degree of authenticity, in its widest meaning, for the performers and viewers. This allows us the conceptual means to describe and analyze what each form of Irish dance can tell us about human behavior. Thus, we can look at all of the genres —Irish step dancing, Irish competition dancing, Riverdance , as well as Agnes de Mille’s modern ballet choreography inspired by Irish step dancing, 1 the dances performed by Irish immigrants in Canada and America, and American folk dancers performing Irish dances in a recreational context—on a single conceptual plane. By laying the various traditions side by side, we can discern the many parallel instances of Irish dancing, and we can begin to analyze the meaning each context offers the researcher without privileging any one of them over the others. The motives for each context differ, and that affects the degree of skill, rehearsal, and technique required for the specifi c performance. This, then, is the core idea of the volume: people have motives when they dance because, unlike eating, sleeping, and earn- ing a livelihood, dance is, in most cases, an elective activity. People choose to dance, and this book is about why they dance—for fun, sex, profi t, ethnic identity, and the nation, among other motives. Even though this book is not about dance in the fi eld, I will sometimes compare and contrast it with the various ethno-identity dances that I describe and analyze in the book, because the primary parallel tradition constitutes a frame of reference for ethno-identity dance. I delib- erately present a wide variety of staged dance genres, from a variety of x PREFACE geographical locations, in order to show the depth and breadth of these performances and the contexts in which they can be seen. I classify them as examples of ethno-identity dance, and examine the many contexts in which they exist and the motives that impel their creation, in all of their diversity. I will suggest in this study that what is popularly called “folk dance,”— a term that has been both overly and, yet still inadequately, defi ned by writers—has been viewed in its ethno-identity dance form (that is, in its presentational and staged form) more often than it has been witnessed as dance in the fi eld. Most individuals do not have access to village and tribal celebrations in which dance in the fi eld occurs. This makes it imperative that we are all clear about what we mean by terms, such as “folk dance,” “traditional dance,” and “ethnic dance,” that we frequently use in our writings, and that we use these terms in a precise manner. I will provide my defi nitions for these terms in the Introduction. Music historian Matthew Gelbart (2007) usefully reminds us that the distinctions between “folk,” “classical,” and “popular” music constitute recent categories of musical genres. In this study I will apply Gelbart’s notion to dance— that what is meant by these terms is frequently fl uid and blurred. In this study I will rely heavily on personal experience of viewing performances and rehearsals, viewing recordings (that are blessedly abundant in the digital age), interviewing dancers, directors and other individuals who participate in creating dances for representational purposes, and using my large fi le of dance programs, newspaper articles and reviews, and books and articles written by dance scholars.

Claremont, USA Anthony Shay

NOTE 1. The Informer (Celtic songs, arr. by Marc Blitzstein, Martha Johnson, John Morris, Trude Rittman). Scenery and costumes by Santo Loquasto. Lighting by Jennifer Tipton. First presented by American Ballet Theatre with Victor Barbee, Johan [sic] Renvall, and Kathleen Moore at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. March 15, 1988. This was one of Agnes de Mille’s last choreographies. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank my colleagues who cheerfully allow me to bend their ears as I grapple with my ideas, particularly in their initial stages. This is a col- legiate act of generosity for which I am most grateful. At Trondheim, dance historian Naomi Jackson listened to what I wanted to accomplish and suggested that ethno-identity dance seemed to constitute a good working term. My colleague Jonathan M. Hall patiently listened (several times) as I grappled with how I might conceptualize the tango in its multiple variations and contexts. My colleagues at Pomona College Laurie Cameron, chair of the Dance Program, Meg Jolley, Victoria Koenig, and John Pennington, and other members of the Theatre and Dance faculty have offered great support over the years: Betty Barnard, Art Horowitz, Tom Leabheart, Sherry Linnell, Joyce Lu, Leonard Pronko, James Taylor and the stalwart staff who make it all run smoothly: Mary Rosier, and Cathy Seaman. Jonathan Wright, Assistant Dean, and Sandra Fenton, Grants Administrator, are always supportive of my research and programming activities. They provide suggestions for making my fellowship proposal resonate better with the various committees that allot funding. Radman Shafi e, a long-time fl amenco and tango dancer and instructor, with several visits to Buenos Aires under his belt, read and commented on my tango chapter. I thank Taras Lewyckyj, the artistic director of the Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, who proved to be a wonderful and engaging host during the recording of a documentary on his company in Philadelphia (August 3–8, 2013). He kindly read the chapter on the Ukraine and provided

xi xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

helpful comments. He and fi lmmaker, Henry Nevison, supplied a great deal of intellectual stimulus for this project, and they encouraged me to use the term ‘ethno-identity dance’ in the documentary to demonstrate how Ukrainian dance contributed to the ways in which Ukrainians created their identity and viewed themselves as an ethnic community. I am grateful to Paul Stafura and Karen Prykull at Duquesne University Tamburitzans who supplied me with historical and technical information about the ensemble and a photo. I spent many pleasant hours working with that company in the 1970s. I also extend my thanks to the hundreds of dancers, singers, and musicians of the AMAN50, Folk Ensemble and the AVAZ International Dance Theatre who participated in my own choreographic creations and gave shape to the conception of ethno-identity dance. Mady Taylor and Katina Shields helped shape Chap. 2 with their insights into Greek dance culture, one of their life-long passions, and shared the knowledge they gained during many years as residents of Greece. I thank Susie Burke and her committee for organizing the AMAN50 Reunion of October 10–12, 2013, an event that restored my belief in ethno-identity dance as a transcendent experience for thousands of individuals, and in the joy I gain from creating it. This event provided many hours of discussions surrounding the motives of those who perform with AMAN. Another group of listeners are friends and family. Philip Nix, a true friend who provides me with the gift of stimulating intellectual conver- sation, has discussed this volume with me for hours, making generous and useful comments. He introduced the notion that the contents of this volume and the conceptual framework within which I am working are “generative,” that is, they will spawn more works and more ideas from other scholars and writers. In teaching a course entitled “Dance, Ethnicity, and Nationalism” at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey (June 22–August 16, 2014), I used several of the chapters in manuscript form. I am especially grateful to class members David Slater and Şiniz Öztörün for the useful insights they provided in response to the readings. I am grateful to Professor Öztürkmen for arranging the invitation to teach the course, as well as her warm friendship. I also thank colleagues, Professor Arzu Öztürkmen and Professor Belma Kurtişoğlu for wide-ranging theoretical discussions, often over Professor Öztürkmen’s delicious Turkish cooking. I thank Professor Kurtişoğlu for inviting me to listen to the defense of a PhD ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xiii

dissertation in which the candidate suggested that Kurdish folk dance had become an important political symbol of the Kurdish resistance movement (Goneme Hongur. “Politics, Struggle, Violence, and the Transformation of Expressive Culture: An Ethnography of Kurds’ Musical Practices in Turkey”. PhD dissertation defense. June 27, 2014. Istanbul Technical University). I thank Professors Gediminas Karoblis and Egil Bakka of the Choreomundus Project at the University of Norway, Trondheim (NTNU) for inviting me to participate in a seminar, at which we used readings from this book. I am also grateful to the students—Brian Anbulo, Michael Buganda, Tsehaye Haidemariam, János Kovacs, Sekar Sari, Ana Stojanović, Kafui Marcus Tay, and Madli Teller—for their friendly welcome and gra- cious comments on the readings. I am most blessed that, for over twenty-fi ve years, my spouse, Jamal, has always listened to my fl ights of imagination, and provided me with astute evaluations. He also provides me with an anchor of love and caring in this life. Not insignifi cantly, he is one of the fi nest chefs I know.

CONTENTS

Introduction: Ethno-identity Dance 1

Part I Ethno-Identity Dance for Sex 25

1 “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate”: The Multiple Parallel Traditions of Belly Dance 33

2 “Breaking Plates on the Plaka”: Zorba Dancing 75

3 It Takes Two to Tango 109

Part II Dancing for Profi t 149

4 Lovely Hula Hands: The Many Faces of Hula 153

Part III Dancing for the Nation 171

5 Irish Dancing: “When Irish Feet Are Twinkling” 179

xv xvi CONTENTS

6 Dancing for the Nation: The Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, The Duquesne University Tamburitzans, and the Gandy Dancers 205

Conclusion 229

Bibliography 233

Index 255 LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 1 The State Ensemble of Croatian Folk Songs and Dances LADO performs dances of Posavina (Choreography by Zvonko Ljevaković. Courtesy of the LADO Ensemble of Folk Dances and Songs of Croatia) 11 Fig. 2.1 Dancers performing a syrtaki in an Athens nightclub in the Plaka (Courtesy and permission of Christos Papakostas) 102 Fig. 3.1 Loreen Arbus and Alberto Toledano perform a choreographed tango de salon (Courtesy of Loreen Arbus and Tanguero Productions) 112 Fig. 3.2 Helene Erikson and Tyler Sellon perform a tango in a competition held in Buenos Aires, 2015 (Used with permission of the Helene Eriksen archive) 132 Fig. 6.1 The Duquesne University Tamburitzans perform a Ukrainian folk dance (Courtesy of Paul Stafura and the Duquesne University Tamburitzans) 207 Fig. 6.2 A concert fl yer for the Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble performing Hopak from the Poltava region (Director Taras Lepyckyj. Courtesy of Taras Lepyckyj) 222 Fig. 6.3 The Duquesne University Tamburitzans perform tamburica music with their big orchestra (Courtesy of Paul Stafura and the Duquesne University Tamburitzans) 224

xvii INTRODUCTION

Introduction: Ethno-identity Dance

HUMAN MOTIVES FOR DANCING AND VIEWING DANCING

The Dance Event For purposes of analysis and description, I use framed dance events that many dance scholars have used since the 1970s to contextualise their stud- ies. The idea of a framed dance event permits us to look at performances in a holistic fashion, following folklorist Robert Georges’s concept of the storytelling event ( 1969 ). Prior to Georges’s model, folklorists primarily studied the contents of the story as the most important element of storytelling. As Georges noted, during the nineteenth and much of the twentieth century studying the contents of the story to the exclusion of all else “motivated investigators to record additional story texts and to study the content of these texts in order to discover what information they might convey about the history and nature of man and culture” ( 1969 , 314). I remember as a young student in the 1950s, folklorists searched for variations of folk tales, folk song texts, and folk song melodies in the hope that their research would locate new variations, and that they would receiving kudos from their colleagues for their discoveries. Thus, Georges was tak- ing a crucial conceptual and intellectual step back in order to view the entire event, which included the storyteller and his or her stories and their content, the way in which the storyteller delivered the tale, the audience and their reactions to the story. He concluded: “Only by attempting to study storytelling events holistically can we begin to appreciate their true

© The Author(s) 2016 1 A. Shay, Ethno Identity Dance for Sex, Fun and Profi t, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-59318-4_1 2 A. SHAY signifi cance as communicative events, as social experiences, and as unique expressions of human behavior” (1969 , 328). Importantly, Georges proposed that an audience was not a single entity, but a collection of different individuals who potentially had different responses to the story. Some individuals might embrace the story, while others might not. He viewed the folkloric event in a holistic fashion that enabled the researcher (reader) to look, not only at the content of the story, but also at a range of human behaviors that enriched his or her study. I follow Georges’s lead in attempting to identify the many aspects of human behavior that I observe within dance events, and the myriad motives that people display for participating. This point is important because I have found that people tend to have multiple motives for participating in or viewing a dance event. Folk dance was almost always studied from the same viewpoint as folk tales. The investigator primarily notated the steps and fi gures of the dances—their content. Although some dance scholars still primarily notate the content, fi lling national archives with the results of their fi eldwork, Georges revolutionized the study of dance, music, and other disciplines with his concept of the framed event as human behavior and communica- tion, giving scholars the ability to widen their scope of investigation. In this study, I will use framed dance events in order to identify the variety of human behaviors that are displayed by performers and viewers during these events. In other words, I will be looking for motives for human behavior that can be uniquely recognized during dance events. The entire concept of audience reception contains pitfalls for the scholar, especially in ascertaining how various members of an audience respond to a presentation that they are viewing or a book that they are reading. However, it is possible to investigate audience reactions through the use of interviews and questionnaires. While I directed my two dance companies, I sometimes resorted to using questionnaire, and even long interviews, in order to justify the grant and fellowship requests that I made to foundations and art councils. I frequently interviewed the dancers and musicians in my company as to their reasons and motives for participating in such a time-consuming activity in order to support the arguments that I made in my MA thesis as well as later publications. During long bus rides in the touring days of AMAN Folk Ensemble and AVAZ International Dance Theatre, we frequently discussed at length what it was that brought us into the orbit of dancing and making music on stages throughout the United States. The AMAN executive director INTRODUCTION: ETHNO-IDENTITY DANCE 3 told us that he was stunned to fi nd out from the National Endowment for the Arts staff that, after the New York City Ballet, AMAN was the most sought after dance attraction in the country (Public statement. October 12, 2013). Our dance cards were certainly fi lled. In 2007, at the 30th reunion of AVAZ, I asked the assembled members, some 100 individuals, to send me an email detailing the reasons they had joined the company, and the motives that kept them going to rehearsals and performances. Many of them wrote moving descriptions of what motivated them to join the ensemble and to stay for many years, and how participation in the company was life-changing. AMAN held a three-day convention in Palm Springs, CA, to celebrate the fi ftieth anniversary of its founding, October 10–13, 2013, drawing some 400 former members. During the intense sessions reviewing the history of the company which, as the living founding artistic director, I started off and in which I served as the keynote speaker, speaker after speaker addressed the motives for why each and every one of them had surrendered years and hours of valuable time to learning, perfecting, and performing dances and music that were not of their own heritage. Almost every person felt that this activity was one of the most central ones in their lives. I took copious notes, and I have the entire proceed- ings on a set of 5 DVDs ( Aman 50 : Coming Home. 2013 ). Many of the motives that were expressed at the convention found their way into this study.

“THE FUNCTIONS OF DANCE IN HUMAN SOCIETIES” More than 40 years ago, when functionalism and structuralism were very much in the air in the humanities and social sciences, I followed Georges’s model in my thesis for a Master of Arts in Anthropology: “The Functions of Dance in Human Societies” ( 1971 ). In that thesis, I identifi ed six primary functions: (1) Dance as a refl ection and validation of social organiza- tion. (2) Dance as a vehicle of secular and religious ritual expression. (3) Dance as a social diversion or recreational activity. (4) Dance as a psycho- logical outlet and release. (5) Dance as a refl ection of aesthetic values, or an aesthetic activity in itself. (6) Dance as a refl ection of economic sub- sistence patterns, or an economic activity in itself. Anya Peterson Royce in her groundbreaking book, The Anthropology of Dance (1977 ), devoted several pages to analyzing the approach that I used, which she found generally useful. 4 A. SHAY

Motives While the present study is not, strictly speaking, a functional approach, I do wish to borrow some of the ideas from that earlier study. Crucial to that thesis was the notion that dance events rarely display a single function. Generally speaking, one can identify a primary function alongside one or more secondary functions. Because of the mechanical implications of the term “function,” I prefer to identify the “motives” that impel individuals to participate in dance events, either as participants or viewers, and hence to study the forms of human behavior and decision-making agency. Motives make more fl uid concepts and forms of behavior than functions. For example, they can change within the framework of a dance event—a viewer may suddenly decide to become a participant. Also, crucial to this concept is the idea that individuals frequently have multiple motives that attract them to participate in a dance event either as a performer or as a member of the audience. If we look at a ballet performance as an example of a dance event with which most people are familiar, we will discover myriad motives for atten- dance. The dancers and musicians would certainly have originally been attracted by the aesthetics that inform ballet and drew them to it as a profession. Most individuals in Western societies would identify a ballet performance as an aesthetic event and might claim to attend the event because they are aesthetically attracted to ballet as an art. Some individuals attend because being seen at a performance of a high-brow art confers social prestige, while they might in their most secret thoughts hate ballet. The dancers and musicians, support staff, technicians, and vendors of souvenir programs are most certainly motived by economic consider- ations; participation constitutes their livelihood. In reviewing these many and sometimes confl icting motives, the reader can understand that they constitute blurred categories, a point that I cannot stress enough. Thus, motives constitute a core concept of this study that reveals the aspects of human behavior that one can view within a dance event. In many earlier societies dance was not always the elective activity that characterizes dance events in contemporary society. In the city-states of Ancient Greece, most individuals were expected to dance as a civic duty in religious ceremonies, and able-bodied young men learned and performed pyrrhic dances in order to prepare for participation in battle (Lawler 1964 , 123). Even today, although more rarely, specifi c individuals in societies, such as the Pueblo societies of the Southwest United States, members of INTRODUCTION: ETHNO-IDENTITY DANCE 5

Sufi orders, and professional Bugaku dancers in the Japanese court must dance, or move in a particular way, in order to fulfi ll vital ritual obligations. Their participation insures that the ritual ceremonies in which they participate have validity; their societies demand their presence in specifi c dance events that are deemed crucial for the secure functioning of the society. However today, overwhelmingly individuals dance because they choose to do so. They are exercising agency. This study seeks to identify the motives for those choices, because dance, especially ethno-identity dance, is so frequently a choice behind which is a motive. In this book I will identify and explore three motives: sex, profi t, and the nation. From personal experience, I can suggest others: having fun, engaging in physical exercise, and aesthetic attraction are examples. I will again stress that an ethno-identity dance may have several motives behind its creation and performance. A particular genre may have multiple motives and multiple forms and modalities; they constitute parallel traditions, which I will unpeel. In hula, for instance, there exist sacred hula, tourist hula, hula for the concert stage, and demonstra- tions of hula at museums for audiences who want to understand more about Hawaiian culture, hula as a political vehicle for resistance against encroachments on Hawaiian identity, exemplifi ed by the performance at the Hawaiian State Building in 1998 as a political protest. 1 There are many motives, and ethno-identity dance in all its complexity constitutes a suitable subject for scholarly inquiry into important aspects of human behavior. I have written about participants in the International Recreational Folk Dance Movement who dance primarily for fun, and in another study I have described individuals who, like myself, have been drawn to various types of dancing because of the aesthetic attraction, which in my case bordered on obsession (2008 ). I have found enormous fulfi llment in choreographing dances from Iran, Croatia, Azerbaijan, and many other areas as an aesthetic activity. Others have been drawn to participate or view specifi c ethno-identity dances by an attraction to exoticism in order to enliven their lives. In some cases this can embody Deborah Root’s notion of “cannibal culture” (1998 ), and it can constitute one of the motives for individuals learning to perform belly dancing. As I will point out in Chapter 1 on belly dancing, the primary motive for viewing belly dancing is sexual allure, at least for many heterosexual men who make up the majority of audiences in many parts of the Middle East, and for whom sexual congress with the dancer is a possibility, both historically and today. 6 A. SHAY

ETHNO-IDENTITY DANCE In this volume, and in the spirit of the conference and workshops that I attended in Trondheim, Norway, I want to propose a term to cover the wide variety of genres of staged and presentational dance that are inspired and generated from traditional dance forms—“ethno-identity dance”. I use the term to classify dances that are derived from, or refer to, or are inspired by, or claim to be authentic dances from the fi eld that are used for purposes of representation in front of an audience. They are generally staged, often spectacularly, and designed to show before viewers—for sex, for profi t, for the nation or an ethnic group, and other reasons and motives. This includes genres inspired not only by folk dance, but also vernacular and traditional classical dance genres. Here are a few examples: Bollywood and Riverdance , tourist belly dancing in Istanbul and Cairo, tourist hula in Hawaii, the productions of state-supported folk dance companies, tourist and gay tango, Zorba dancing in Athens, Sufi performances in Istanbul and Cairo, and recreational folk dancing in North America. These genres are a few of the forms that I defi ne as “ethno-identity dance.” I would agree that this might be considered a clunky label, but I hope to be able to establish it as an adequate term to cover all of these dance genres and to eliminate the necessity for constantly having to defi ne terms to identify a type of dance that is generated by a number of different motives. Importantly, this term enables us to discuss genres of dance without implications of authenticity, appropriation, and exoticism; in other words, without negative evaluations. Because so many genres fi t under this rubric, it is clear that we need a single term to identify such dances. They can then be subsumed under the motive for their creation, which should be identifi able, given that they are all intentionally created. Another important aspect of ethno-identity dance genres is that they are used primarily for purposes of representation and self-presentation, and invariably refer to some form of dance that is associated with specifi c ethnic identities. Many scholars have explicitly and implicitly indicated that the study of dance in the fi eld must be privileged over all other forms of research into what is variously called traditional (a term I prefer), folk, ethnic, and world dance (among others). As I suggested in my study of state supported folk dance companies (2002 ), other forms that relate back to the traditional forms are inauthentic, impure, and almost immoral—inauthentic genres for academic attention. Among many similar comments, Greek INTRODUCTION: ETHNO-IDENTITY DANCE 7 dance scholar Marica Rombos-Levides states: “Demand for high quality performances of traditional dance increases year by year, and we must safe- guard traditional culture from becoming a theatrical object expressing the artistic priorities of individuals” (1992, 104), while dance ethnographers Georgiana Gore and Maria Koutsoubas state: “Any representation of traditional dance outside its customary context is no more than ‘imitation’ and may be seen as an artifi cial and adulterated version of the ‘original’” ( 1992 , 30). I understand that these observers perceive many of the ver- sions of traditional dance seen in Disneyland-like or Las Vegas contexts as camp, glitzy, and inauthentic. However, I will argue in this volume, as I have elsewhere, that the dedication of individuals who participate in tethno-identity dance performances and to which many devote their professional lives, provide scholars with a unique opportunity to analyze aspects of ethnicity, sexuality and gender, politics, economics, and a wide array of other human behaviors that are manifest in these performances. We have yet to provide an adequate term to encompass such a wide variety of dance activities, and the selection of dances that I describe and analyze in this study are only suggestive of that range, not defi nitive. In other words, I am attempting to generate new terminology and examples, and to encourage further investigation into what motivates individuals to invest time, effort and money to learn and perform these sometimes ardu- ous and technically diffi cult dance genres.

Terminology To begin, I will defi ne the terms that I use in this study, and how those terms generated the new term that I propose. For purposes of this study:

• Folk dance refers to dance traditions which are handed down in a folkloristic style, that is, in a face-to-face learning context, and the learning is frequently, but not always, informal. This means that folk dances can be both rural and urban. Folk dance genres are regionally specifi c. Genres that are widespread, such as the Arab dabka and the related halay , which is danced by Armenians, Turks and Kurds, have many regional variations. • Traditional dance includes a wider spectrum of dances, such as classical court dances of India, Japan, Korea, and other Asian states as well as folk dances. The court dances most often feature formal learning in a traditional manner. Generally the performers of these genres 8 A. SHAY

are professional or become nearly professionally profi cient, and learn their art over many years in a guru setting. Classical court dances often have an important aesthetic element and there sometimes exist formal criteria for evaluating the performances and performers. I do not wish to imply that evaluation is found lacking in folk dance: most people in societies that perform folk dances know who the best dancers are, but they often lack the ability to articulate the reasons that a specifi c dancer is outstanding because there may be no formal terminology to articulate why a specifi c person is a good dancer. • Vernacular dance includes popular dances which may be learned in various ways. For example, the tango is learned by many Argentines in the same way that rural populations learn folk dances, in an informal style, whereas Americans, Japanese and other tango enthusiasts more often learn it through studio teaching environments. • World dance , as I use it, can refer to dance genres like Bollywood, Riverdance , and belly dancing that are transnational and extend well beyond their places of origin.

ATTEMPTS TO DEFINE STAGED DANCE GENRES Ethnomusicologist Felix Hoerberger in his 1968 article, “Once Again: On the Concept of Folk Dance”, suggested that we call authentic dance—or “dance in the fi eld”, to use the term proposed by Theresa J. Buckland’s some 30 years later—“fi rst existence folk dance.” Everything that did not quality as authentic, pure folk dance was “second existence folk dance.” Later, the terms “participatory” and “presentational” came into general use among scholars writing about folk dance; the fi rst term roughly cor- responds to Hoerberger’s “fi rst existence folk dance,” and the latter to “second existence folk dance.” I reject Hoerberger’s use of “second” as too reminiscent of “second best,” or “second fi ddle” as automatically less than “fi rst.” This would place ethno-identity dance below dance in the fi eld in a hierarchy that privileges the latter, which is something that too many dance scholars have been doing for much too long. Moreover, the dichotomy between the two categories renders simplistic a choreographic phenomenon that is, in fact, complex. Ukrainian dance scholar AndriyNahachewsky (forthcoming 2016) has proposed a way for using the terminology for describing folk dance. “The proposed solution is a use of ‘folk dance’ that refers to the dances INTRODUCTION: ETHNO-IDENTITY DANCE 9 performed by peasants plus any dances actively derived from them. This last defi nition for ‘folk dance’ expands upon the fi rst one, and adds peasant-inspired dances, even if they are performed in cities and by non- peasants.” He adds, “Scholars interested in the actual dances of peasants can use the term ‘peasant dance,’” by which he means dance in the fi eld. Nahachewsky, recognizing the many types of dance that fall in the “presentational, second-existence” category concludes that: “Our defi nition of ‘folk dance’ then, combines two halves, peasant dance and refl ective folk dance” 2016, 303–304. (The chapter 2016, 298–318). For him in “‘refl ective dance” the participants are aware that they are engaging with tradition in some way and participate in various processes that include “‘revival, ‘recontextualization,’ ‘reconstruction,’ ‘revitalization’” (2016, 304). He adds the important point: “To a greater or lesser degree, the dancers are pretending to be peasants” (ibid., emphasis in the original). This, certainly, is the case in most of the state-supported national folk dance companies that I surveyed in Choreographic Politics ; the professional dancers assume the role of a peasant or tribal member on stage. On the other hand, I doubt that the dancers in Riverdance carry the illu- sion that what they perform is peasant dancing, or that they are playing the role of a peasant, even though they refer the dances in their reper- toire, at least implicitly, back to Irish traditional origins. Nahachewsky also proposes the term “ethnic dance” connecting it to “ethnicity in general…‘Ethnic dance’ can be the dance component of these shared cultural traditions…Importantly, this concept of ‘ethnic dance’ does not make reference to peasantry.” He proposes the term for dance that has “ethnic salience…The most intensely ethnically salient dances are potent sites of interaction involving two or more different cultures” (2016, 306). He cites as examples: “The Chinese dance in the Nutcracker ballet or when” the Greek American celebrants dance specially to mark their particular identity to themselves and their non-Greek guests” (308–309). However, I would suggest that connections with ethnicity exist in all of the dance genres that I place under the rubric of ethno-identity dance. In the United States, the term “ethnic” dance for some time carried the pejora- tive notion of any dances that were created by non-white Americans, which ranged from modern dance created by non-white choreographers to folk dances performed by immigrants. Ethnic dance thus, became an overde- termined term that lost any meaningful signifi cance, because it became a useful method to consign the cultural creations of non-whites to the trash bin of “less than” and “other.” 10 A. SHAY

I cite Nahachewsky’s well-reasoned article because it raises several important issues arising from this knotty problem, and I would also rec- ommend it to any reader who is interested in the history of this terminology. First, as Nahachewsky elaborates at length, the term “folk dance” has become almost meaningless. I characterize “folk dance” as “something that we all know what it is,” but, like “ethnicity” or “masculinity”, some- how we cannot articulate it in any exact way. The category that I created— something that we all know what it is—compels us to carefully articulate our concepts to avoid the vagueness that the term “ethnic dance” eventu- ally acquired, as discussed above. Many identify folk dance with peasants. However, if we look at the way in which certain urban dance traditions in South Serbia, for example, differ from the peasant traditions that surround them, I suggest that they also qualify as folk dances because they are learned and transmitted in the same way as peasant dances. (see Janković 1937). In addition, many dances, that I would subsume under folk dances because of the way they are transmitted, are performed by tribal groups who would not qualify as peasants. Thus, in contrast to redefi ning folk and ethnic dance, as Nahachewsky does, I suggest using “ethno-identity dance” to describe the staged ver- sions of traditional dance. Terms like “folk dance” are oversaturated among the public and in academia because we all think we know what folk dance is. However, a new term—ethno-identity dance—allows us to create novel groupings and to differentiate categories that have resisted attempts to create a nomenclature for them.

GOALS OF THE INTRODUCTION I want to accomplish three things in this introduction. First I would like to briefl y discuss the reasons why dances that are termed “folk” (or “vernacular”), or “classical” are staged. This is because I create categories for ethno-identity dance largely based on the motives for their creation and employment. Second, I want to discuss the concept of “revivalist” dance and to problematize that term because it is used in a number of inappropriate contexts, especially with reference to ethno-identity dances. Third, I want to more fully explore the new term, “ethno-identity dance,” that covers the many possible motives that underpin this staged genre without implying that it is “less than” or “not as authentic” as other dance genres. I also use the term because some of these staged dances constitute a form of identity building, or ethnic identity INTRODUCTION: ETHNO-IDENTITY DANCE 11

Fig. 1 The State Ensemble of Croatian Folk Songs and Dances LADO performs dances of Posavina (Choreography by Zvonko Ljevaković. Courtesy of the LADO Ensemble of Folk Dances and Songs of Croatia) representation and self- presentation. This is why several modernist states such as Turkey and Iran have established state-supported folk dance companies, as discussed in Choreographic Politics ( 2002). I will contrast two of these companies—the Mahalli Dancers of Iran and the Moiseyev Dance Company—to demonstrate the ways in which nation states use and manipulate ethno-identity dance for purposes of valorizing ethnicity and the nation, as well as underlying economic motives such as attract- ing tourists through colorful and spectacularized folk dances. I will also suggest other ways in which creators of ethno-identity dance attempt to serve nationalist imperatives (Fig. 1 ).

REVIVAL The term “revival” is oversaturated with meanings and contexts, most of which may seem inappropriate to the phenomena that many scholars, especially in the fi elds of folklore and ethnomusicology, use it to characterize. In this book, I will “revival” as it is generally understood, which is the revitalization or reconstruction of dances that appear to have been lost or forgotten, using the example set by Egil Bakka ( 2000), a Norwegian dance scholar who has resuscitated, and reconstructed Norwegian folk dances, and made folk dancing a popular activity in Norway once again. There exist many instances in which the motive behind folk dance revival