Dance circles
Subtitle: movement, morality and self-fashioning in urban Senegal
By: Hélène Neveu Kringelbach
Edition: First edition.
Series: Dance and performance studies -- volume 5
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2013
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 236
ISBN-13: 9781782381471; 9781782381488
Subjects: Dance; Dance companies; Performing arts; Social policy; Social life and customs
Description: Senegal has played a central role in contemporary dance due to its rich performing traditions, as well as strong state patronage of the arts, first under French colonialism and later in the postcolonial era. In the 1980s, when the Senegalese economy was in decline and state fundingwithdrawn, European agencies used the performing arts as a tool in diplomacy. This had a profound impact on choreographic production and arts markets throughout Africa. In Senegal, choreographic performers have taken to contemporary dance, while continuing to engage with neo-traditional performance, regional genres like the sabar, and the popular dances they grew up with. A historically informed ethnography of creativity, agency, and the fashioning of selves through the different life stages in urban Senegal, this book explores the significance of this multiple engagement with dance in a context of economic uncertainty and rising concerns over morality in the public space.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-229) and index.