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

[skywardprodigal.livejournal.com]

I liked her dance. I thought she did a wonderful job. I could watch her for hours. And now I'm checking out youtube. Thanks for the intro.

I think, that if she'd worn a costume similar to what she'd had on fr her solo dance in week 1, she would have done better in terms of scores for the judges.

Watching the faces of audience members that make it on camera is illuminating.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

More about her:

http://www.move1524.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19:hatch&catid=10:current-performances&Itemid=22

http://www.mambagirl.com/article.asp?artid=1871

If she had a public figure page on Facebook, I'd fan it in a heartbeat, but she just has a regular member profile.

[skywardprodigal.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all these links!

[kynn.livejournal.com]

I think that they would be okay with her being "tribal" [sic] but she transgressed racial boundaries by wearing a "Western" costume, and that's why they gave her a tepid response.

But it's not as much the costume as the subject matter; her performance was a critique of Western dance tropes in addition to being a stunning performance.

[skywardprodigal.livejournal.com]

Yeah. In her first dance, she's critiquing tradition, religion and culture. BRAVA went the judges. And her critique of Western dance tropes ruffled feathers (even though Russians aren't quite exactly Westerners). The more I watch her Swan, the more I like it.