Dance Ethnography and Examples of its Limits of Representation in Haiti

1. Dance Ethnography and Examples of its Limits of Representation in Haiti Based on articles by Randy Martin and Kate Ramsey By Erin Irving and Donna Gallagher Edited by: Dr. Picart and Donna Gallagher

2. Aims: • To understand how ethnography can apply to the study of dance • To understand the role of the audience in representation art • To be able to cite examples of dance ethnography from articles and situations.

3. What is Ethnography? How Can This Study Be Applied to the Critical Analysis of Dance? Are there any negative effects with ethnography, historically?

4. Why do you think the audience is so important in representation art, specifically dance?

5. The Importance of the Audience • The Occidental v. The Oriental • The colonial aspect of ethnography • The “unstable” audience

6. Reading Dancing by Susan Foster Foster’s Critical Methodology Metaphorical (resembling): Deborah Hay resembles Renaissance dancers.

7. Foster’s Critical Methodology Metonymic (imitative): George Balanchine’s relation to 18th century ballet.

8. Foster’s Critical Methodology “Martha Graham, as emblematic of expressionist dance, stands in synecdochic relationship to it” (Martin 331).

9. “Merce Cunningham retains an ironic distance from his objectivist descedants”(Martin 331)

10. The Judson Church Anything can be called dance, including visual art, film, and music. Said to encompass a democratic style of dance because the dancers had agency and they could utilize as much as space as they wished.

11. In Herbert Blau’s The Audience, he again criticizes the unstable audience. “The audience simulates the presence mobilized in history, but within the vulnerable and elusive constitution of the contemporary public sphere” (Martin 336).

12. Vodou, Nationalism, and Performance: The Staging of Folklore in Mid-Twentieth-Century Haitiby Kate Ramsey KDCAH

13. Aims • Discuss the impact of U.S. Marine occupation and Catholicism on Haitian culture. • The impact of tourism and politics on the perception of vodou dance. • Relate the relevance of Martin’s article to Ramsey’s articles.

14. The Impact of the U.S. Occupation • U.S. Marines occupied Haiti 1915-1934. • The Wilson administration took over Haiti’s legislature, banks, and national businesses. • The U.S. appointed a president for Haiti. • The Marines established a gendarmerie to police the Haitians.

15. Catholicism in Haiti • The French Catholic Church signed The Concordat in 1860. • Major anti-Vodou campaigns occurred in 1896, 1913, 1939-1942. • The most damaging called the campagne anti-superstitieuse. • The Resilience of Vodou worship.

16. What is “Folklore”

17. Haitian Nationalism KDCAH

18. What Do You Think? Compare the following two quotes, keeping in mind Martin’s view on the importance of ethnography in dance. Which position do you choose and why?

19. Works Cited Nahum, Roger, et al. Dance, Voodoo, Dance. Films for the Humanities, 1992. Martin, Randy. “Dance Ethnography and the Limits of Representation.” Meaning in Motion. ed. Jane C.Desmond. Duke University Press: Durham and London, 1997. 321-343. Ramsey, Kate. “Vodou, Nationalism, and Performance: The Staging of Folklore in Mid-Twentieth-Century Haiti.” Meaning in Motion. Ed. Jane C. Desmond. Duke University Press: Durham and London, 1997. 345-378. <http://www.criticaldance.com/find/merce_cunningham-summerspace.jpg> <http:www.danceonline.com/feat/judson.html <http://www.deborahhay.com> <http://dictionary.oed.com> <http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/kdunham> <http://marthagrahamdance.org>