the "look" of dance

Dance, like many forms of expression, exemplifies an internal feeling that needs not explaining. Sometimes words butcher the true realness of the act, transforming it into a stored file unbeknownst to who came first, the chicken or the egg. The author, Joann Kealiinohomoku writes a scholarly paper on being "An Anthropologist [who] Looks at Ballet as a Form of Ethnic Dance" and focuses on identifying the origin of dance as a cultural expression. She starts her paper by saying "It is good anthropology to think of ballet as a form of ethnic dance." (33). When I first read this sentence I was discouraged from reading her biases and ambiguous proposals of terms such as “good anthropology” and “ethnic dance.” What is “it” that she begins the paper with? What files under “good anthropology”? My personal perception of Kealiinohomoku’s writing was not off to a good start.

The separation of opinions of the writings explored by DeMille, Sachs and Sorell to name a few are established to better understand the differences in primitive and primeval origin constructed by collective races and their “intent.” Kealiinohomoku dismisses the primeval forms of dance by knowing nothing (34) and focuses on “primitive” dance from sources by Sorell and Terry by means of functionality and symbolism. Both sources suggest the need of an occasion to dance and through certain societies, under a special male figure. I found this most interesting because to me dancing in an open path leading nowhere in particular is what makes it feel so good.

I thought of ballet as this beautiful leaping form of figures in tights and ever since I was able to balance on my tippy toes at three years old, I’ve always wanted to be one. Somehow I associated this beauty and elegance within a certain image, race or stereotype of thin footed, satin-skinned feathers. Even though this desire was swept under the rug like a failed product, the style still invites me to try dancing in similar movements. It wasn’t the image I favored as a child but the way in which it felt to move in such a way without judgment or words I did not yet know the meaning of. Ethnic and ethnographic expressions of emotion through movement are characterized through these varying constructs of functionality and symbolism from which they are born, raised and died in. How can any one form of expression lay claim to a certain “style” when they are ever-changing? If we look at dance as a “primitive” expression from a standstill of the ethnographic present, Kealiinohomoku emphasizes that ethnic dance is not a “primitive” dance. However, she concludes that “every dance form must be an ethnic form” (39) reflecting the individual and bigger or larger culture that encompasses it. Beyond the boundaries of a collective product of a culture, dance is an autonomous form revealing ones background by habit or genetic variation. From learning the ethno-aesthetic dances that incorporate these influences, we are also learning about the culture in which individuals find their muse. Globalization in this way has influenced and assimilated certain “looks” of dances that once differentiated the “us” and “them” of cultures. As anthropologists, we seek to look beyond this black and white paradigm.