Learning Senegalese Sabar DANCE AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES General Editors: Helen Wulff, Stockholm University and Jonathan Skinner, Queen’s University, Belfast Advisory Board: Alexandra Carter, Marion Kant, Tim Scholl In all cultures, and across time, people have danced. Mesmerizing performers and spectators alike, dance creates spaces for meaningful expressions that are held back in daily life. Grounded in ethnography, this series explores dance and bodily movement in cultural contexts at the juncture of history, ritual and performance, including musical, in an interconnected world. Volume 1 Dancing at the Crossroads: Memory and Mobility in Ireland Helena Wulff Volume 2 Embodied Communities: Dance Traditions and Change in Java Felicia Hughes-Freeland Volume 3 Turning the Tune: Traditional Music, Tourism and Social Change in an Irish Village Adam Kaul Volume 4 Dancing Cultures: Globalization, Tourism and Identity in the Anthropology of Dance Edited by Hélène Neveu Kringelbach and Jonathan Skinner Volume 5 Dance Circles: Movement, Morality and Self-Fashioning in Urban Senegal Hélène Neveu Kringelbach Volume 6 Learning Senegalese Sabar: Dancers and Embodiment in New York and Dakar Eleni Bizas Learning Senegalese Sabar Dancers and Embodiment in New York and Dakar q Eleni Bizas berghahn N E W Y O R K (cid:127) O X F O R D www.berghahnbooks.com First published in 2014 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com ©2014 Eleni Bizas All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bizas, Eleni. Learning Senegalese sabar: dancers and embodiment in New York and Dakar / Eleni Bizas. pages cm. -- (Dance and Performance Studies; volume 6) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-78238-256-0 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-1-78238-257-7 (ebook) 1. Dance--Anthropological aspects--Senegal. 2. Dance, Black--Africa, West--Influence. 3. Dance--Study and teaching--New York (State)--New York. 4. Dance--Study and teaching--Senegal--Dakar. I. Title. GV1588.6.B59 2014 792.809663--dc23 2013022520 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Printed on acid-free paper ISBN: 978-1-78238-256-0 hardback ISBN: 978-1-78238-257-7 ebook To my grandparents Άννα και Παναγιώτη Χαλκίδη, και Ελένη Μπιζά Table of Contents List of Figures qx Acknowledgements xi Map of Senegal in Africa xiv Introduction 1 A Threefold Approach to Sabar 2 Theoretical Orientation 4 Transnational and Translocal Moves 4 ‘African Dance’ and Dance Anthropology 7 Learning and Apprenticeship 8 Fieldwork 12 Movement of the Book 14 1. Transatlantic Travels of West African Dance 18 West African Dance 18 Independence, Négritude and the Arts 20 Exporting Dance 23 Dancing Bodies, ‘Caste’ and Authority 25 Dancing Professionally 27 The Dancing Body 29 ‘In the Blood’ and ‘In the House’ 30 Gender, Age and Physique 31 2. The New York Dance Floor 38 Downtown’s Move! Dance Center 41 Politics on the Dance Floor 43 The Structure of West African Dance Classes 43 Line Formation: Space and Time 45 Downtown Divas 45 Community and the Others 46 viii ■ Table of Contents Community Classes 48 Traditionalists vs. Innovators 52 Concluding Uptown 56 Downtown Students 56 Energy 57 The Way It Makes Me Feel 58 Negotiating ‘Community’ 61 An Invested Approach 64 Conclusion 65 3. Navigating Transatlantic Flows 68 The Search for ‘Context’ and ‘Authenticity’ 70 Context-less New York 70 The Promised ‘Context’ 72 Students’ Many Contexts 74 Feeding the Process 78 Weaving Narratives into Relationships 80 Crossing Back Over to the USA 82 4. Re-choreographing Sabar 86 ‘Traditional Dances’ for International Students 86 Traditional and Folkloric Ballets 89 Learning in a Géwël Household 90 Ashtou’s House 91 Learning from Mbalax Clips 92 Television: A New Domain for Dance 94 Contesting the Dance 96 Together on the Dance Floor 98 5. The Kinaesthetic of Sabar 101 A Taste of Sabar 102 The Morality of Movement 104 Restricted Perception 106 ‘Breaking It Down’ 107 Restricted Action 108 Movement as ‘Natural’ 110 Natural as an Aesthetic 112 Learning through Feeling 112 Approaching the Kinaesthetic in Dakar 114 6. Hearing Movements, Seeing Rhythms 117 The Problem of Rhythm 118 (Not) Communicating Rhythm 118 Against Cumulative Knowledge 120 Table of Contents ■ ix Guided Improvisation 121 Creative Imitation: Television, the Mirror and the Others 124 Concluding Remarks 125 Conclusion 127 Moving with Sabar 127 Sabar Representation, Politics, Realities 128 Learning and Performing Sabar 130 The Habitus of the Senses 130 Learning as an Environed Activity 131 Glossary 133 Bibliography 135 Index 147