Les mondes du Lindy Hop : appropriation culturelle et politiques de la joie

An international contemporary subculture has formed around the practice of Lindy Hop and the African-American Jazz dances of the beginning of the XXth century. It has gained popularity by its focus on the joy of dancing and a welcoming social environment. Although today this culture is predominantly represented by non African-American dancers, the scene has developed a close relationship with a few elders who used to be regulars at the Harlem Savoy Ballroom, the legendary place where the dance initially flourished. Informed by the lived experience of these elders, the process of reenactment, actualization and transmission of the historic dances is a complex one, involving the cultural appropriation of afrocentric situated knowledge as well as the representation of its joyful nature. Adopting the standpoint theory paradigm with an intersectional approach, this dissertation examines the processes of transcultural translation through which the elders’ narrative and their politics of emotion are substituted with an altered meaning. The cultural dynamic involves racialized strategies of equivalence and identity and an unexamined power/knowledge relation. The analysis focused on the ideological foundation of the subculture, the foucaldian “will to knowledge” and the dancers’ “mythological” (Roland Barthes) relationship with history and cultural authenticity. Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach and a situated phenomenology, three case studies were conducted through a multi-site ethnography. A participant observation was carried at the Swedish Herräng Dance Camp (1), the biggest international annual gathering of dancers. Despite the importance given to the Africanist origins of the dance and the promotion of liberal values like openness, participation, community and proactive freedom, the investigation highlighted a dominant and hegemonic reference system that perpetuates the basis of a social and racialized marginalization. This cultural community, characterized by an attention to “good practice”, was also the context for the emergence of “killjoys” (Sara Ahmed) (2) highlighting the structural social homogeneity of the subculture. The Black feminist claim of these “killjoys” also pointed to the need to contextualize and situate the political, racialized, gendered and economic dynamic of the elders’ narrative in their experiential account of the Harlem Renaissance that gave birth to the dance. Ultimately, this dissertation sought to posit an ethical and counter-hegemonic critical standpoint, articulating the political thought of Hannah Arendt and postcolonial theory. Throughout its process of analysis, a participative action research was carried out at the Montreal’s Cat’s Corner Swing Dance School (3). It led to collectively challenge the pedagogical conventions of the dance rooted in the hegemonic order of whiteness. The results of which formed around the beginning of an extensive educational reform, founded in a more holistic and open approach to the tradition of the dance and in a renewed ethic of care.

Keyphrases: Danse Jazz, Killjoy, Jazz dance, Cultural appropriation, Standpoint theory, Will to knowledge, Cultural politics