Learning Senegalese Sabar: Dancers and Embodiment in New York and Dakar

169 Pages·2014·1.245 MB·English

by  Eleni Bizas

Learning Senegalese Sabar
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
Learning Senegalese Sabar
Dancers and Embodiment in New York and Dakar
q
Eleni Bizas
berghahn
N E W Y O R K (cid:127) O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
First published in 2014 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
©2014 Eleni Bizas
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
Bizas, Eleni.
Learning Senegalese sabar: dancers and embodiment in New York and
Dakar / Eleni Bizas.
pages cm. -- (Dance and Performance Studies; volume 6)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-78238-256-0 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-1-78238-257-7
(ebook)
1. Dance--Anthropological aspects--Senegal. 2. Dance, Black--Africa,
West--Influence. 3. Dance--Study and teaching--New York (State)--New
York. 4. Dance--Study and teaching--Senegal--Dakar. I. Title.
GV1588.6.B59 2014
792.809663--dc23
2013022520
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Printed on acid-free paper
ISBN: 978-1-78238-256-0 hardback
ISBN: 978-1-78238-257-7 ebook
To my grandparents
Άννα και Παναγιώτη Χαλκίδη,
και Ελένη Μπιζά

Table of Contents
List of Figures qx
Acknowledgements xi
Map of Senegal in Africa xiv
Introduction 1
A Threefold Approach to Sabar 2
Theoretical Orientation 4
Transnational and Translocal Moves 4
‘African Dance’ and Dance Anthropology 7
Learning and Apprenticeship 8
Fieldwork 12
Movement of the Book 14
1. Transatlantic Travels of West African Dance 18
West African Dance 18
Independence, Négritude and the Arts 20
Exporting Dance 23
Dancing Bodies, ‘Caste’ and Authority 25
Dancing Professionally 27
The Dancing Body 29
‘In the Blood’ and ‘In the House’ 30
Gender, Age and Physique 31
2. The New York Dance Floor 38
Downtown’s Move! Dance Center 41
Politics on the Dance Floor 43
The Structure of West African Dance Classes 43
Line Formation: Space and Time 45
Downtown Divas 45
Community and the Others 46
viii ■ Table of Contents
Community Classes 48
Traditionalists vs. Innovators 52
Concluding Uptown 56
Downtown Students 56
Energy 57
The Way It Makes Me Feel 58
Negotiating ‘Community’ 61
An Invested Approach 64
Conclusion 65
3. Navigating Transatlantic Flows 68
The Search for ‘Context’ and ‘Authenticity’ 70
Context-less New York 70
The Promised ‘Context’ 72
Students’ Many Contexts 74
Feeding the Process 78
Weaving Narratives into Relationships 80
Crossing Back Over to the USA 82
4. Re-choreographing Sabar 86
‘Traditional Dances’ for International Students 86
Traditional and Folkloric Ballets 89
Learning in a Géwël Household 90
Ashtou’s House 91
Learning from Mbalax Clips 92
Television: A New Domain for Dance 94
Contesting the Dance 96
Together on the Dance Floor 98
5. The Kinaesthetic of Sabar 101
A Taste of Sabar 102
The Morality of Movement 104
Restricted Perception 106
‘Breaking It Down’ 107
Restricted Action 108
Movement as ‘Natural’ 110
Natural as an Aesthetic 112
Learning through Feeling 112
Approaching the Kinaesthetic in Dakar 114
6. Hearing Movements, Seeing Rhythms 117
The Problem of Rhythm 118
(Not) Communicating Rhythm 118
Against Cumulative Knowledge 120
Table of Contents ■ ix
Guided Improvisation 121
Creative Imitation: Television, the Mirror and the Others 124
Concluding Remarks 125
Conclusion 127
Moving with Sabar 127
Sabar Representation, Politics, Realities 128
Learning and Performing Sabar 130
The Habitus of the Senses 130
Learning as an Environed Activity 131
Glossary 133
Bibliography 135
Index 147