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A book · Routledge, 2023 · with Kathleen A. Spanos

Dancing in the World
Revealing Cultural Confluences

Sinclair Ogaga Emoghene and Kathleen A. Spanos

Dancing in the World: Revealing Cultural Confluences, the cover
Cover photo of Devaprayāg confluence by Ashwini Chaudhary.

How can we create more inclusive spaces in the field of dance?

This book presents a framework for dance practitioners and researchers working in diverse dance cultures to navigate academia and the professional dance field. The framework is based on the idea of “cultural confluences,” conjuring up an image of bodies of water meeting and flowing into and past one another, migrating through what they refer to as the mainstream and non-mainstream. These streams are fluid categories that are associated with power, privilege, and the ability (or inability) to absorb other cultural forms in shared dance spaces. In reflective interludes and dialogues, Emoghene and Spanos consider the effects of migration on their own individual experiences in dance to understand what it means to carry culture through the body in various spaces. Through an analysis of language, aesthetic values, spaces, creative processes, and archival research practices, the book offers a collaborative model for communicating the value that marginalized dance communities bring to the field.

This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and arts administrators in dance.

Published
August 16, 2023
Series
Routledge Series in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Theatre & Performance
Extent
150 pages, 1 black and white illustration
ISBN
Hardback 978-1-032-13811-4 · Paperback 978-1-032-13875-6 · eBook 978-1-003-23122-6
DOI
10.4324/9781003231226

The book at Routledge ↗doi.org/10.4324/9781003231226 ↗Google Scholar ↗Order on Amazon ↗danceconfluences.com ↗

Contents

  1. Introduction: Revealing cultural confluences
  2. Chapter 1: Language, value, and branding in confluent dance spaces
  3. Chapter 2: Critical engagement with aesthetic systems in dance
  4. Chapter 3: Navigating cultural confluences and envisioning new spaces
  5. Chapter 4: Choreography, improvisation, and “just steps”
  6. Chapter 5: Cultural knowledge production in dance academia

Reviews

“Dancing in the World: Revealing Cultural Confluences is a significant and valuable contribution to minority dance cultures and proposes a new approach to aesthetics in Western dance. Emoghene and Spanos write from a personal perspective, revealing experientially and from the depth of their hearts the struggle to be seen and heard as dancers. In pushing for confluent spaces, they describe a methodology for investigating lesser understood dance forms to give room for proper appreciation.”
Christopher Ugolo, Professor of African Dance, University of Benin
“Emoghene and Spanos challenge systems of privilege and hierarchy in dance academia in the United States and propose more inclusive structures that make space for dancers from all communities to work on their own terms. Dancing in the World: Revealing Cultural Confluences is engaging and thought-provoking, and provides rich insights into the diverse experiences of the co-authors, as non-mainstream dancers and educators within third-level educational systems in the United States.”
Catherine E. Foley, Senior Lecturer Emerita of Ethnochoreology, University of Limerick
“Dancing in the World: Revealing Cultural Confluences not only weaves together concerns of aesthetics, pedagogy and dance, but also brings to the table new ways to consider data and technology as a tool for learning and understanding about movement, people and the world. By bringing our attention to their own experiences and practices, Emoghene and Spanos provide a lens for digital autoethnography of dancing in the twenty-first century.”
Kate Sicchio, Assistant Professor of Dance, Virginia Commonwealth University

Dancing in the World, the podcast

Welcome to Dancing in the World, the podcast that reveals cultural confluences in dance practices across the globe.

This video podcast, hosted by co-authors Sinclair Ogaga Emoghene and Kate Spanos, is a continuation of the conversations started in their book, “Dancing in the World.” In the first eight episodes, they discuss the impetus for writing the book, their collaborative writing process, and some of the major issues they discuss in each chapter.

Season 1 of the podcast launched on June 15, 2023.

Watch on YouTube ↗Listen on Spotify ↗

  1. Episode 1IntroductionsJune 15, 2023

  2. Episode 2Revealing cultural confluencesJune 22, 2023

  3. Episode 3Migrations in danceJune 29, 2023

  4. Episode 4Dance as playJuly 6, 2023

  5. Episode 5“Ainihi e Alteridade: Performing Otherness”, with Pablo de OliveiraJuly 13, 2023

  6. Episode 6Just steps, or the racialization of choreography and improvisationJuly 20, 2023

  7. Episode 7A conversation with Professor Chris Ugolo, University of BeninJuly 27, 2023

  8. Episode 8Collaboration, writing, and dialogue in confluent spacesAugust 3, 2023

Produced by Pablo de Oliveira / EducArte. Recorded, edited, and mastered by Blue House Productions.

This podcast is a production of EducArte, with support from the Maryland State Arts Council and Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts.

Credits

The Dance Confluences site, danceconfluences.com, was designed by Kathleen A. Spanos.

Funded by the Maryland State Arts Council and VCU Arts.

Kathleen A. Spanos ↗Maryland State Arts Council ↗VCU Arts ↗