Anthony Shay

Folk Dance, Ethnicity And Festival in the United States And Canada

Choreographing Identities

Assistant Professor of Dance and Cultural Studies Anthony Shay

This study of the politics of representation and authentication among state-sponsored or state-assisted 'folk ensembles' shows that dance is a culturally significant social phenomena. Anthony Shay is also the author of Choreophobia.

State Folk Dance Companies, Representation and Power

Choreographic Politics

This book is about the folk: the folk in folk dance, the folk in folklore, the folk in folk wisdom. When we see folk dance on the stage or in a tourist setting, which is the way in which many of us experience folk dance, the question arises are these the “real folk” performing their authentic dances? Or are they urban, well trained, carefully-rehearsed professional dancers who make their livelihood as representatives of a specific nation-state acting as the folk? Or something in between? This study delves more deeply into the folk, their origins, their identities in order to know the source of inspiration for ethno identity dances - dances prepared for the stage and the ballroom and for public performances from ballet, state folk dance ensembles and their amateur emulators, immigrant folk dance group performances, and tourist presentations. These dances, unlike modern dance, ballet, or most vernacular dances, always have strong ethnic references. It will also look at a gallery of choreographers and artistic directors across a wide spectrum of dance genres.

Staging the Folk

Folk Dance and the Creation of National Identities

Barbara Sellers-Young

Orientalism, Transnationalism, and Harem Fantasy

Belly Dance

From the kordax dancers of ancient Greece, to the pantomimes of ancient Rome, to the slave-girl singers in Caliphal Baghdad, to the dancing boys in present-day Afghanistan, and the belly dancers in Egypt, professional entertainers in the Islamic world endured low social status, were regarded as sexually available, and if male, bore the stigma of effeminacy. Located at the margins of society, yet highly visible because their bodies were on display, public entertainers were often used by the elite classes to police public morality and enforce rigid standards of masculinity through the negative trope of his or her tainted profession. In covering this long historical framework and the wide geographic area - from the ancient Mediterranean world to the modern Islamic Middle East, including India and Pakistan - Shay explores and repairs the careers, artistic performances, and legacies of these individuals, who endured brutish, often short lives that were characterized by public humiliation, and who were forced to produce entertainment and art for, and have sex with, any and all patrons.

Dancing, Sex, and Entertainment in the Islamic World

The Dangerous Lives of Public Performers

In spite of the negative reactions solo improvised dance can evoke, nonetheless it is also loved and performed throughout the Iranian world, emphasizing the ambiguity that accompanies its performances in various social contexts."--Jacket.

Solo Improvised Dance in the Iranian World

Choreophobia

Jennifer Fisher

When Men Dance explores the intersection of dance and perceptions of male gender and sexuality across history and different cultural contexts. Chapters tackle the history and dilemmas that revolve around dance and notions of masculinity from a variety of dance studies perspectives, and are accompanied by fascinating personal histories that complement their themes.

Choreographing Masculinities Across Borders

When Men Dance

Anthony Shay (1936) teos „Tantsupoliitika: riiklikud rahvatantsuansamblid, representatsioon ja võim“ (originaali esmatrükk ilmus 2002. aastal) seob endas tantsu-uuringud, poliitikateaduse ja antropoloogia. Autor analüüsib süvitsi kuut professionaalset riiklikult rahastatavat tantsuansamblit – vaatluse all on Türgi, Egiptuse, Mehhiko, Kreeka, Nõukogude Liidu ja Horvaatia riiklikud trupid – ja seda, kuidas need ansamblid levitavad poliitilisi, etnilisi ja kultuurilisi sõnumeid, kogudes sellega oma rahvusriigile sümbolilist ja kultuurilist kapitali. Autor uurib truppide ülesehitust, analüüsib nende repertuaari, etendusi ja koreograafilisi strateegiaid ning annab ülevaate poliitilisest ja sotsiaalsest kontekstist, milles iga ansambel loodi. Ameeriklasest autoril on California-Riverside ülikooli doktorikraad tantsuajaloos ja -teoorias. Ta on ka ise tantsinud mitmes rahvatantsutrupis ja vaadanud alates 1950. aastatest lõputul hulgal etendusi üle kogu maailma.

Tantsupoliitika

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.

These Boots are made for Dancing

Dance and Authoritarianism

People all over the world dance traditional and popular dances that have been staged for purposes of representing specific national and ethnic groups. Anthony Shay suggests these staged dance productions be called “ethno identity dances”, especially to replace the term “folk dance,” which Shay suggests should refer to the traditional dances found in village settings as an organic part of village and tribal life. Shay investigates the many motives that impel people to dance in these staged productions: dancing for sex or dancing sexy dances, dancing for fun and recreation, dancing for profit - such as dancing for tourists - dancing for the nation or to demonstrate ethnic pride. In this study Shay also examines belly dance, Zorba Dancing in Greek nightclubs and restaurants, Tango, Hula, Irish step dancing, and Ukrainian dancing.

Staging Popular Dances Around the World

Ethno Identity Dance for Sex, Fun and Profit

Throughout its history, the United States has become a new home for thousands of immigrants, all of whom have brought their own traditions and expressions of ethnicity. Not least among these customs are folk dances, which over time have become visual representations of cultural identity. Naturally, however, these dances have not existed in a vacuum. They have changed—in part as a response to ever-changing social identities, and in part as a reaction to deliberate manipulations by those within as well as outside of a particular culture. Compiled in great part from the author’s own personal dance experience, this volume looks at how various cultures use dance as a visual representation of their identity, and how “traditional” dances change over time. It discusses several “parallel layers” of dance: dances performed at intra-cultural social occasions, dances used for representation or presentation, and folk dance performances. Individual chapters center on various immigrant cultures. Chiefly the work focuses on cultural representation and how it is sometimes manipulated. Key folk dance festivals in the United States and Canada are reviewed. Interviews with dancers, teachers, and others offer a first-hand perspective. An extensive bibliography encompasses concert programs and reviews as well as broader scholarly sources.

Folk Dance, Ethnicity and Festival in the United States and Canada

In this book Anthony Shay examines the life and works of renowned choreographer Igor Moiseyev and his dance company. Formed in 1937 the Moiseyev Dance Company have performed across the globe and are the first major Soviet dance group to perform in the United States. Through the Moiseyev Dance Company, dance became a vital diplomatic tool, ballerinas replaced atom bombs, and helped usher in a new era of cultural exchange, formalized by an agreement signed by the United States and the Soviet Union. Through this book Shay explores the multiple lenses of spectacle, Russian nationalism, and the Cultural Cold War, to describe and analyse the history of Moiseyev’s company, and the shock that ‘innocent’ folk dance gave the American government. Blending academic study and personal anecdote Shay provides a nuanced analysis of Moiseyev’s importance and his place in the world of dance. This is the first English language study of Igor Moiseyev and his dance company.

Anthony Shay

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