POC appropriation of white culture?

[tielan]

Brought to my notice by wiliqueen at her journal:

South Africa's Mamela Nyamza on Superstars Of Dance performs an extremely non-standard 'Dying Swan':

My own reaction was, "Well, that's not proper ballet - it's not pure enough - it's not graceful and conventionally elegant enough!" And then I realised I was watching, not ballet, but a woman showing a dying swan in dance - not just the pretty, but the ugly, the death throes, the inelegance and wastefulness of death. That it was a more gritty relating of a transition our society mostly glosses over - from life to death.

It's not standard dance. But it was a brilliant display of body movement under the complete control of an artist, not showing a "ballet interpretation of dying swan" but showing "a representation of dying swan with reference to balletic interpretation".

Mamela was always utterly and totally in control of the dance. It was all calculated: there for a reason, to make a point, to give an impression. And while my first impression was to cringe, once I got past the fact that "This is ballet! It should be graceful and elegant and technically pure!" I was really really impressed.

Interestingly, wiliqueen says the judges lambasted her for this performance.

So does this count as "You can be noble savages or sexualised objects of desire, thugs, and wise sages, but don't touch the white culture"?

Comments

[thelana.livejournal.com]

Ok, I checked out the finale and:

- Ok, I have no idea what else he did, but I can't believe that American guy even got into the top 3.

- Similarly, wow, I can't believe that they genuinely had non-professionals grade two kathak dancers against each other. I know next to nothing about kathak *except* that it is pretty much impossible to judge correctly if you don't have the background because there is so much technique and symbolism involved.

Anyway, thanks for linking the clip, very gorgeous. I'm glad I saw it. Compared to what the others were performing, maybe it was just too modern and sophisticated/original for the show.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

Having listened to the judges' comments again, they're not as negative as I recalled from the night it aired (when I was all "WTF are you insane??" with tears still in my eyes from the performance), but on second listening they still sound to me like damning with faint praise. Lots' of "I respect the risk you're taking, but..." And your hunch is dead-on about the numbers -- they seem respectable out of context, but the math of the scoring system was completely transparent, and it was immediately obvious they would keep her out of the final round. After the spectacular reception she had the previous week, I was shocked, probably moreso than it really warranted.

Although it didn't help that it was kicked off by the Argentinean judge's very first words being "I'm used to..." And that being the only reason she articulated for awarding a lower score than in the previous round.

Similarly, wow, I can't believe that they genuinely had non-professionals grade two kathak dancers against each other

The judging overall was mostly a joke. Made more so by the abstention when their compatriots performed -- yes, it avoided favoritism, but it also meant that the judge most likely to be knowledgeable in a given idiom wasn't judging it. It really irked me that it had to be a competition in the first place -- it just shoehorned in fake drama and wasted time that could have been spent watching more dance! But that's US networks for you. :-P