Liz Edouard-Danc 0163- Stripping the Emperor

Gottschild in “Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance” discusses the Africanist legacy in American culture. While she argues the case for African influence in American culture, this theme can be applied across the world as people have migrated or traveled and incorporated ideas from all over. In South America, there is a constant debate about the Latin American Identity and the need for Latin Americans to accept that their culture is a mix of several influences. Nestor García Canclini uses the term “hybrid” in his book “Hybrid Cultures” to describe the social cultural process of the combining of distinct practices and structures to become new objects and practices that incorporate the distinctive units. While this applies to Mexico where the culture of the country has been influenced by its indigenous roots, colonial powers, and revolutionary period, a parallel can be drawn to American culture, which has taken aspects from all immigrant cultures to become a similar melting pot of cultures. Gottschild captures this idea by saying, “ the Africanist legacy comes to Americans as electricity comes through the wires: we draw from it all the time, but few of us are aware of its sources” as it has become so ingrained in our culture that although we are not always willing to admit it, it is part of the roots of our culture.

The word juxtaposition is used to explain the inclusion of African aesthetic with European ballet and Georgian culture when describing Balanchine’s dance pieces. While I believe that it is a juxtaposition of these forms of dance and/or culture, I feel that by picking out certain styles included within the dance we are limiting the depth of the piece and all its influences. A piece created in the XXth century that has American influence will almost automatically have a wide range of inspiration that contributes to the piece due to the nature of American culture. I appreciate that Balanchine acknowledges the beauty of African dance and the texture it adds to more traditional dance pieces through polycentricism and ephebism, but I somehow wish the influence of other cultures in his movements could have been discussed at least in passing. On the other hand, using the term “Americanization” is more encompassing and when it is used later in the paper, it shows the power of American dance as it becomes a “hybrid” form of dance- unique yet highly complex due to its rich roots.