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

[briar_pipe]

That was what dance is: a reinterpretation of ideas and emotions through the body. The fusion of styles was fascinating and original. Judges were idiots (or else lacked courage themselves).

Clearly, I should never watch this show. It's well-nigh impossible for experts from one folk form to critique another folk form without extensive experience watching and performing it. One simply can't get a proper perspective on the individual performance, instead letting the form itself overshadow what the dancer is actually doing with it.

Don't know if I even made sense there....

Anyway, I think the best way to look at Nyamza's performance is to watch the audience: the rapt expressions, the children with dropped jaws, the genuinely enthusiastic cheering afterward. Those people can't critique the dance in terms of its style, but they can confirm that Nyamza did an incredible job as a performer. The audience's reaction is, in the end, the focus of all performing arts.

/climbs off soapbox

Deleted and moved because I can't click straight tonight...