Table Of ContentChoreographies of Landscape
DANCE AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES
General Editors:
Helen Wulff, Stockholm University and Jonathan Skinner, Queen’s University, Belfast
Advisory Board:
Alexandra Carter, Marion Kant, Tim Scholl
In all cultures, and across time, people have danced. Mesmerizing performers and
spectators alike, dance creates spaces for meaningful expressions that are held back in
daily life. Grounded in ethnography, this series explores dance and bodily movement
in cultural contexts at the juncture of history, ritual and performance, including
musical, in an interconnected world.
Volume 1
Dancing at the Crossroads: Memory and Mobility in Ireland
Helena Wulff
Volume 2
Embodied Communities: Dance Traditions and Change in Java
Felicia Hughes-Freeland
Volume 3
Turning the Tune: Traditional Music, Tourism and Social Change in an Irish Village
Adam Kaul
Volume 4
Dancing Cultures: Globalization, Tourism and Identity in the Anthropology of Dance
Edited by Hélène Neveu Kringelbach and Jonathan Skinner
Volume 5
Dance Circles: Movement, Morality and Self-Fashioning in Urban Senegal
Hélène Neveu Kringelbach
Volume 6
Learning Senegalese Sabar: Dancers and Embodiment in New York and Dakar
Eleni Bizas
Volume 7
In Search of Legitimacy: How Outsiders Become Part of an Afro-Brazilian Tradition
Lauren Miller Griffi th
Volume 8
Choreographies of Landscape: Signs of Performance in Yosemite National Park
Sally Ann Ness
Choreographies of Landscape
Signs of Performance in Yosemite National Park
q
Sally Ann Ness
berghahn
N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
First published in 2016 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
©2016 Sally Ann Ness
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ness, Sally Ann.
Choreographies of landscape : signs of performance in Yosemite National
Park / Sally Ann Ness.
pages cm — ( Dance and Performance Studies ; 8)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-78533-116-9 (hardback : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-1-78533-117-6 (ebook)
1. Human geography—California—Yosemite National Park. 2. Cultural
landscapes—California—Yosemite National Park. 3. National parks and
reserves—Public use—Yosemite National Park. 4. Ethnology—California—
Yosemite National Park. 5. Performing arts—Philosophy. 6. Ethnology—
Philosophy. 7. Landscapes—Social aspects. 8. Symbolism. I. Title.
GF504.C2N47 2016
979.4’47—dc23
2015028312
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-78533-116-9 Hardback
E-ISBN: 978-1-78533-117-6 Ebook
Th is book is dedicated to Yosemite’s visitors, past, present, and future;
and especially to my daughter, Anna Lucile Reck,
and those of her millennial generation.
Chinese tourists taking photos of themselves at Tunnel Viewpoint, Yosemite National Park, June 2012.
Photo by Sally Ann Ness.
Contents
q
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgments x
I. Approach
Landscape Performance Th eory, an Introduction 3
II. Visiting
1. Bouldering: Movements of the Unforetold 43
2. Climbing: Scenic-Obscenic Movement 72
3. Hiking: Self-World Transformations 101
III. Moving On
4. Unwinding and Changing Course 129
5. Th e Spartanburg Coincidence 155
Index 171
Illustrations
q
Frontispiece. Chinese tourists taking photos of themselves at
Tunnel Viewpoint, Yosemite National Park, June 2012. Photo
by Sally Ann Ness. vi
Figure 0.1. Visitor Anna Reck choreographing a “small fact” of visitor
experience inside a living oak tree in Yosemite Valley, 4 July 2005.
Photo by Erich Reck (from the collection of Sally Ann Ness). 5
Figure 0.2. Visitors performing on boulders beside the trail to Lower
Yosemite Fall Viewpoint, April 2009. Photo by Sally Ann Ness. 9
Figure 0.3. Amna Shiekh climbing on the Columbia Boulder, October
2008. Photo by Sally Ann Ness. 15
Figure 1.1. Alan Moore preparing to climb the route Jacob’s Ladder,
April 2008. Photo by Sally Ann Ness. 42
Figure 1.2. Moore climbing Jacob’s Ladder, April 2008. Photo by
Sally Ann Ness. 51
Figure 2.1. Jamcrack’s vertical crack, a typical feature in Yosemite’s
granite walls. Photo by Derick Fay, May 2010 (from the collection
of Sally Ann Ness). 80
Figure 2.2. Author climbing on the unnamed crack before the incident
occurred. Photo by Darrell Logan, May 2010 (from the collection
of Sally Ann Ness). 81
Figure 2.3. Author at the top of the unnamed crack climb after the
speech act occurred. Photo by Charlotte Tonnies Moore, May
2010 (from the collection of Sally Ann Ness). 95
Figure 3.1. Half Dome seen from Glacier Point, July 2005. Th e face
of Tis-se-yak is said to be visible in the upper right quadrant of the
north face. Photo by Katie Manduca (from the collection of
Sally Ann Ness). 104
Illustrations ■ ix
Figure 3.2. Vernal Fall Bridge, June 2012, taken at around 8:00 am, at
the beginning of an overnight trip to the summit of Half Dome.
Photo by Sally Ann Ness. 106
Figure 3.3. Backpackers on the alternate route up to the top of
Nevada Fall, June 2012. Photo by Sally Ann Ness. 108
Figure 3.4. Bridge at the top of Nevada Fall, June 2012. Photo by
Robert Finch II (from the collection of Sally Ann Ness). 109
Figure 3.5. View of summit from the end of the fourth stage, June
2012. Photo by Sally Ann Ness. 111
Figure 3.6. View from the top of Subdome, June 2012. Photo by
Sally Ann Ness. 112
Figure 3.7. Cables of the fi nal stage of the Half Dome hike, June
2012. Photo by Sally Ann Ness. 114
Figure 5.1. Yosemite Valley’s eastern end, October 2008. Half Dome
is to the right. Royal Arches and Washington Column are in the
center. Photo by Sally Ann Ness. 154
Figure 5.2. A frontal view of Royal Arches, September 2008. Photo
by Sally Ann Ness. 162
Figure 5.3. El Capitan, October 2005. Photo by Sally Ann Ness. 163
Figure 5.4. Ranger in Camp 4, Yosemite Valley, October 2008. Photo
by Sally Ann Ness. 167
