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

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

I watched that episode too and wanted to smack the judges upside the head if only because I'd watched a few of the episodes prior to that one.

Judging for the most part was a joke all around. You had the South African judge constantly harping on the men in the partner dances saying they weren't 'manly' enough. At least one female soloist was judged on the sole fact that she had a great smile and was wearing next to nothing while she...danced.

The South African soloist as well as the two soloists representing India to my mind were the best of the lot.