Full Description
Dancing across Borders: Danzas y Bailes Mexicanos focuses specifically on Mexican dance practices on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. The essays explore various types of Mexican popular and traditional dances and address questions of authenticity, aesthetics, identity, interpretation, and research methodologies in dance performance. Contributors include not only noted scholars from a variety of disciplines but also several dance practitioners who reflect on their engagement with dance and reveal subtexts of dance culture. Capturing dance as a living expression, the volume's ethnographic approach highlights the importance of the cultural and social contexts in which dances are practiced. Contributors are Norma E. CantÚ, Susan Cashion, MarÍa Teresa CeseÑa, XÓchitl C. ChÁvez, Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez, RenÉe de la Torre Castellanos, Peter J. GarcÍa, Rudy F. GarcÍa, Chris Goertzen, Martha GonzÁlez, Elisa Diana Huerta, Sydney Hutchinson, Marie "Keta" Miranda, Olga NÁjera-RamÍrez, Shakina Nayfack, Russell RodrÍguez, Brenda M. Romero, Nancy Lee Chalfa Ruyter, JosÉ SÁnchez JimÉnez, and Alberto ZÁrate Rosales.
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
Olga Najera-Ramirez, Norma E. Cantu, and Brenda M. Romero
Part I: Contested Identities
1. Embodied Recuperations: Performance, Indigeneity, and Danza Azteca 3 Elisa Diana Huerta
2. The Zapopan Dancers: Reinventing an Indigenous Line of Descent 19 Renee de la Torre Castellanos
3. La Feria de Enero: Rethinking Gender in a Ritual Festival 48 Xochitl C. Chavez
4. Dancing to "Whittier Boulevard": Choreographing Social Identity 66 Marie "Keta" Miranda
5. Creating Agency and Identity in Danza Azteca 80 Maria Teresa Cesena
Part II: Dimensions of Space and Place
6. The Semiotics of Land and Place: Matachines Dancing in Laredo, Texas 97 Norma E. Cantu
7. Dancing to the Heights: Performing Zapotec Identity, Aesthetics, and Religiosity 116 Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez
8. Traditional Dances of the Sierra Norte of Puebla: Identity and Gender Relations 138 Alberto Zarate Rosales
9. Por Que Estas Aqui?: Dancing through History, Identity, and the Politics of Place in Butoh Ritual Mexicano 148 Shakina Nayfack
10. El Baile de los Elotes: The Corn Dance 165 Jose Sanchez Jimenez
Part III: Trajectories of Tradition
11. The Matachines Danza as Intercultural Discourse 185 Brenda M. Romero
12. The Ballet Folklorico de Mexico and the Construction of the Mexican Nation through Dance 206 Sydney Hutchinson
13. Dancing Culture: A Personal Perspective on Folklorico 226 Rudy F. Garcia
14. The Mexican Danzon: Restrained Sensuality 237 Susan Cashion
15. Gender as a Theme in the Modern Dance Choreography of Barro Rojo 256 Nancy Lee Chalfa Ruyter
Part IV: Politics of Traditional and Innovation
16. Staging Authenticty: Theorizing the Development of Mexican Folklorico Dance 277 Olga Najera-Ramirez
17. Dance, Politics, and Cultural Tourism in Oaxaca's Guelgauetza 293 Chris Goerizen
18. Bailando para San Lorenzo: Nuevo Mexicano Popular Traditional Musics, Ritual Contexts, and Dancing during Bernalillo Fiesta Time 318 Peter J. Garcia
19. Folklorico in the United States: Cultural Preservation and Disillusion 335 Russell Rodriguez
20. Zapateado Afro-Chicana Fandango Style: Self-Reflective Moments in Zapateado 359 Martha Gonzalez
Epilogue 379
Selected Bibliography on Folk, Ritual, and Social Dance in Greater Mexico 383
Works Cited 403
Contributors 431
Index 437
