A CONVERSATION WITH DANCE HISTORY: MOVEMENT AND MEANING IN THE CULTURAL BODY A Dissertation Submitted to The Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Seónagh Odhiambo January, 2009 © by Seónagh Odhiambo 2009 All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT A Conversation with Dance History: Movement and Meaning in the Cultural Body Seónagh Odhiambo Doctor of Philosophy Temple University, 2009 Doctoral Advisory Committee Chair: Dr. Kariamu Welsh This study regards the problem of a binary in dance discursive practices, seen in how “world dance” is separated from European concert dance. A close look at 1930s Kenya Luo women’s dance in the context of “dance history” raises questions about which dances matter, who counts as a dancer, and how dance is defined. When discursive practices are considered in light of multicultural demographic trends and globalisation the problem points toward a crisis of reason in western discourse about how historical origins and “the body” have been theorised: within a western philosophical tradition the body and experience are negated as a basis for theorising. Therefore, historical models and theories about race and gender often relate binary thinking whereby the body is theorised as text and history is understood as a linear narrative. An alternative theoretical model is established wherein dancers’ processes of embodying historical meaning provide one of five bases through which to theorise. The central research questions this study poses and attempts to answer are: how can I illuminate a view of dance that is transhistorical and transnational? How can I write about 1930s Luo women in a way that does not create a case study to exist outside of dance history? Research methods challenge historical materialist frameworks for discussions of the body and suggest insight can be gained into how historical narratives operate with coercive power—both in past and present—by examining how meaning is conceptualised and experienced. The problem is situated inside a hermeneutic circle that connects past and present discourses, so tensions are iii explored between a binary model of past/present and new ways of thinking about dance and history through embodiment. Archives, elder interviews, and oral histories are a means to approach 1930s Luo Kenya. A choreography model is another method of inquiry where meanings about history and dance that subvert categories and binary assumptions are understood and experienced by dancers through somatic processes. A reflective narrative provides the means to untangle influences of disciplines like dance and history on the phenomenon of personal understanding. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The idea for this dissertation was born in between a lakeside in Massachusetts, the warmth of home cooked meals in an Ontario kitchen, and a Vancouver shoreline. Somewhere in between these places I decided to bridge my passion for dance with analytical abilities developed over two previous university degrees. When I learned there was a doctorate in dance I started my survey of literature and hitched myself to an idea. I am grateful to a number of people and organisations that supported me and here I thank a few who played a major part in the study’s development. With any major project like this there are turning points and challenging obstacles to overcome, and during these times I often turned to family. My mother Cynthia Jane Baxter helped me through some difficult moments over the years and for her help, encouragement, and strength I am grateful. My father Richard Caffyn Baxter also believed in the project from the beginning and, although he is no longer of this world, I remember his vision that he would one day call me “Doctor.” Likewise, I thank my parents-in-law, Florence Engasia Odhiambo and Barack Nandi Odhiambo, who sat with me for hours at the breakfast table and beyond, and whose kindness and love inspire me to be a better person. There are many more in my family to thank and I extend my hand to each one. Most of all, David Nandi Odhiambo gives more than he can know; his courage, faith, and dedication inspired me at every stage of the project. I am grateful to members of the committee including Dr. Kariamu Welsh who was the first to see the seed and the one to witness and encourage its growth, Dr. Lewis Ricardo Gordon whose theoretical insight often throws me back on my heels, and Dr. Joellen Meglin whose example of service and commitment to her students is an inspiration. I thank my friends, especially Tamara Xavier who was in Philly with me, Dolores Van der Wey who knew what I v needed to do before I did, and Mercedes Baines who has been there at every stop and start. I am also grateful to my friendship with Dr. Betty Bayer whose insights over tea are unparalleled, to The Fisher Center for the Study of Men and Women for their financial support, and to Hobart and William Smith Colleges, including students who dedicated their time, energy, and insights. A particularly big shout out to Leanne Roncolato and Diana Carson for their persistence, depth, and challenges brought into the process, and to Temple Dance students and professors who helped me develop the ideas. Thanks to Charles Greene for his help with and celebration of this project. Finally, thanks to Temple University Graduate School and The Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation for their financial assistance toward completing the dissertation. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. v LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... xii FOREWORD.................................................................................................................. xiv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................1 I. Statement of Problem, Guiding Questions, Purpose and Approach: Contesting a fixed idea.........................................................................................................1 II. Significance of the Problem, Assumptions, Premises, Qualifications: Luo History in the Context of Dance History and Aesthetics ...........................................14 A. Simultaneity: Luo Women’s Dance History in the Context of Dance Praxis ..........................................................................................................14 B. Sexism and History: Why Focus on Luo Women Dancers ...................................17 i. Luo Women ...............................................................................................17 ii. Women Dancers, Folk Dancers ..................................................................19 C. Maintaining Fluidity: Luo Women and Changing Concepts of “The Body” in History.......................................................................................20 D. The Basis of an Intercorporeal Theory: Drawing a Relationship between Past and Present, Material and Lived Bodies ..........................................26 E. Radically International Simultaneity and the Contact Zone: Transnational, Transhistorical, Transdisciplinary, and Transphenomenal...................................................................................................33 III. Methods, Limitations and Delimitations......................................................................41 A. General Introduction to Methods...........................................................................41 B. Research into Luo Women’s Dances: Hermenutics, archives, photographs, ethics, and conversations..........................................................................................................44 vii C. Research in a Dance Classroom in North America: Focusing on a process..........56 IV. Hypothesis and Methodology: Post-Histoire and Luo Women’s Dance.....................61 A. General Introduction to Methods: Post-histoire.....................................................61 B. Hypothesis and Sub-hypothesis .............................................................................76 C. The Need for a Non-dualist Approach: The Body in History................................81 V. Research Questions and Selected Review of Literature ...............................................83 A. Power, Epistemology and Emergent Knowledge ...................................................84 B. Luo Women’s Dance: an Embodied Discourse.....................................................94 C. Luo Women Dance as a Pre-colonial Discourse..................................................101 D. Inter-Embodiment in the Choreography Process.................................................105 VI. Summary of Argument, Intentions, and Approach....................................................109 CHAPTER 2: LUO WOMEN’S DANCE HISTORY: CULTURAL MEMORY IN CONVERSATION.........................................................................................................113 I. Introduction to the Scrapbook Approach......................................................................113 A. Dance History: The Burden of Memory..............................................................113 B. The Monster beneath the “Old Pond”..................................................................121 C. The Spear of Alego: