7 - Alternative Anthropology Through Dance

For decades, dance has been employed by anthropologists as a tool for understanding, producing and sharing knowledge, as well as for challenging racist and colonial ideologies.

This week we will consider some of these revolutionary dance anthropologists, such as Zora Neale Hurston, Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus, as well as some more contemporary anthropologists who are making use of dance, to discuss how dance can be engaged with in anthropology. As a process of movement, dance can allow us to explore and express our everchanging embodied and affective relationships with the external world. Yet, dance can also be used to teach anthropology in a contextualised and meaningful way that is empowering for those involved, or to share anthropological knowledge with wide audiences and challenge social norms.

So why has it been excluded from the anthropological canon and how can we make use of it today?

In preparation for this week’s tutorial, please bring an object that represents ‘university’ for you. This can be anything from a coffee cup to a book or a flower. Just be prepared to explain why… and to dance!

Module 7: Intro

Tutorial Questions

Can dance fit in anthropology as it is in the academy? Why / why not?
Should there be a line drawn between academic anthropology and dance anthropology? If so, where should it be?
What kind of meaning can dance produce? Who has / should have access to this meaning?
What can dance tell us about human societies and cultures?

Module 7: Body

To Watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKGrHKkkzzE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB7axniXYbw

Module 7: Body

Required

Click to Download

Banks, OC 2010, ‘Critical postcolonial dance pedagogy: The relevance of West African dance education in the United States’, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 18-34.

Download

Kraut, A 2003, ‘Between primitivism and diaspora: The dance performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham’, Theatre Journal, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 433-450.

Download

Lentell, S 2021, ‘Why Dance Should be Further Incorporated into Academic Anthropology’

Download

Module 7: Files

Serena Lentell

My anthropological interests lie in interrogating and challenging the various faces of inequality, particularly within the very institutions I am located. My current research is focused on the continued introduction of neoliberal market policy in our universities, specifically in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how this is affecting academic staff.

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Module 7: Team Members

7 - Alternative Anthropology Through Dance

Tutorial Questions

To Watch

Required

Banks, OC 2010, ‘Critical postcolonial dance pedagogy: The relevance of West African dance education in the United States’, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 18-34.

Kraut, A 2003, ‘Between primitivism and diaspora: The dance performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham’, Theatre Journal, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 433-450.

Lentell, S 2021, ‘Why Dance Should be Further Incorporated into Academic Anthropology’

Recommended

Alexeyeff, K 2009, ‘On the beach: An introduction’, in Dancing from the heart: Movement, gender, and sociality in the Cook Islands, University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, pp. 1-28.

Borovica, T 2020, ‘Dance as a way of knowing – a creative inquiry into the embodiment of womanhood through dance’, Leisure Studies, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 493-504.

Serena Lentell

7 - Alternative Anthropology Through Dance

Tutorial Questions

To Watch

Required

Banks, OC 2010, ‘Critical postcolonial dance pedagogy: The relevance of West African dance education in the United States’, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 18-34.

Kraut, A 2003, ‘Between primitivism and diaspora: The dance performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham’, Theatre Journal, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 433-450.

Lentell, S 2021, ‘Why Dance Should be Further Incorporated into Academic Anthropology’

Recommended

Alexeyeff, K 2009, ‘On the beach: An introduction’, in Dancing from the heart: Movement, gender, and sociality in the Cook Islands, University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, pp. 1-28.

​

Borovica, T 2020, ‘Dance as a way of knowing – a creative inquiry into the embodiment of womanhood through dance’, Leisure Studies, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 493-504.

​

Serena Lentell