Post-Salvagism: Choreography and Its Discontents in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Abstract

While researching dance within the Occupied Palestinian Territories, comments made by the choreographers of local performance troupes resonated in my mind because they exemplify how foreign hegemony controls notions of modernity. The first was a lament: “But can't they understand that this is our contemporary dance?” It followed the rejection of the group's application to a European contemporary dance festival, on the basis that their dance production was not contemporary enough and that it would be better suited to a folkloric festival. For those engaged in creative innovation in dance, this rebuke can feel like being sent to a home for the elderly: packed off to a place where everybody dances in circles, reminiscing about the glorious golden past of their own particular civilization. The second comment cropped up in numerous conversations with local dance practitioners and audiences: “I don't like the modern dance.” This comment was generally directed at any foreign or local dance production that did not fit within nostalgically imagined impressions of dance in times gone by.

Researching dance education post-2016: the global implications of Brexit and Trump on dance education

“…Critical thinking can be a very ambiguous concept within Anglo-Saxon educational contexts, often conflating broader uses of reflective logic with Marxist-driven challenges to existing knowledge and social order (Vendermensbrugghe 2004). Such rebellious, modernist approaches to critical thinking can contrast with the way dance knowledge is constructed in diverse parts of the world (Rowe 2009). Alfdaniels Mabingo suggests that research into the development of critical dispositions through dance might begin by first unpacking how the …psychological and social anxieties behind Brexitism and Trumpism (economic disenfranchisement and debauchery of western rationality) have manifested themselves in dance education?…”

When Is Contemporary Dance?

“…Because contemporariness is so often barred to artists from beyond the West, innovations in various world dance practices can go unacknowledged. Nicholas Rowe (2009) argues that the term “contemporary” is not useful to describe developments in Palestinian dance, precisely because the term always puts the non-Western artist within the framework of the West, as either resistant to or yielding to Western aesthetic values. Chatterjea likewise grapples with the universalizing hegemony of contemporary dance technique: I found myself confronted with one question repeatedly: How could I consider my work contemporary if I was still using footwork and hand gestures?…”

Moths, candles and fires: examining dance as creative practice research in a Master's degree

“…In recognition of the ambiguity over the different cultural interpretations of creativity, we expect students to research and articulate the particular context in which their ideas might be considered new and the ways in which their ideas might be considered valuable. This articulation is important because, while 'traditional' dance practices are often valued within academia according to notions of authenticity (Rowe, 2009(Rowe, , 2010, 'creativity' in dance is predominantly valued in Western academia according to either modernist or postmodernist agendas (Ashley, 2010).…”

“…Under such circumstances, a student's comprehension of the artistic principles can be measured against how well the student applies those principles in their creative work and how their creative work thus contributes to that particular artistic narrative (Lavender & Predock-Linnel, 2001). Central to a modernist agenda is a rebellious break from the past, however, which can be debilitating for dance makers not seeking to critique cultural heritage, but to celebrate and extend it (Rowe, 2009).…”

“…From a postcolonial perspective, accepting postmodernism's plurality of perspectives and doubt over the 'originary quality of traditions' can be very debilitating (Tuhiwai-Smith, 1999). Retreating from binary notions of absolute right and wrong may be convenient for a Western culture reviewing its own historical hypocrisies, but this does not necessarily equate with postmodernism being a globally relevant way of constructing and understanding dance knowledge (Rowe, 2008(Rowe, , 2009. Within a postmodern research environment, dancers creatively investigating their own dance traditions might be expected to take an antagonistic or critical view of that heritage.…”