Full Description
Fire Under My Feet seeks to expose the diverse, significant, and often under-researched historical and developmental phenomena revealed by studies in the dance systems of the African Diaspora.
In the book, written documentation and diverse methodologies are buttressed by the experiences of those whose lives are built around the practice of African diaspora dance. Replete with original perspectives, this book makes a significant contribution to dance and African diaspora scholarship simultaneously. Most important, it highlights the work of researchers from Ecuador, India, Puerto Rico, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and it exposes under-researched and omitted voices of the African diaspora dance world of the aforesaid locations and Puerto Rico, Columbia, and Trinidad as well.
This study showcases a blend of scholars, dance practitioners, and interdisciplinarity, and engages the relationship between African diaspora dance and the fields of history, performance studies, critical race theory, religion, identity, and black agency.
Contents
Part I Politicizing Black Bodies and the Appropriation of Identity 1 The Gaze of Power, Rebel Bodies and the Specter of Savagery: African and African Descents Dances in the Narrative Eye of the Beholders in Puerto Rico during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Part II Choreographing the African Diaspora in the Public Space 2 Rooting Across Generations: Establishing British Caribbean Diasporic Identity through Dance 3 Visualizing African Diaspora Dance through the African American Dance Company and Visual Art 4 The Ruses of Memory in the Cinematic Choreographies of Delia Zapata Olivella: Dancing to Build Gender in the Public Spaces Part III Dance, Spirituality, and the Embodiment of Cultural Continuity 5 Dance, Rhythm, and Ritual: Afro-Venezuelans in Resistance 6 Dancing African-ness: The Transnational Identity of Siddi Dammal 7 Dance: A Catalyst for Spiritual Transcendence
