WIN $150 GIFT VOUCHERS: ALADDIN'S GOLD

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

Dancing Mestizo Modernisms

Choreographing Postcolonial and Postrevolutionary Mexico

Jose Luis Reynoso (Assistant Professor of Dance, Assistant Professor of Dance, UC Riverside)

$75.95

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

QTY:

English
Oxford University Press Inc
28 February 2024
This book analyzes how national and international dancers contributed to developing Mexico's cultural politics and notions of the nation at different historical moments. It emphasizes how dancers and other moving bodies resisted and reproduced racial and social hierarchies stemming from colonial Mexico (1521-1821). Relying on extensive archival research, choreography as an analytical methodology, and theories of race, dance, and performance studies, author Jose Reynoso examines how dance and other forms of embodiment participated in Mexico's formation after the Mexican War of Independence (1821-1876), the Porfirian dictatorship (1876-1911), and postrevolutionary Mexico (1919-1940). In so doing, the book analyzes how underlying colonial logics continued to influence relationships amongst dancers, other artists, government officials, critics, and audiences of different backgrounds as they refashioned their racial, social, cultural, and national identities.

The book proposes and develops two main concepts that explore these mutually formative interactions among such diverse people: embodied mestizo modernisms and transnational nationalisms. 'Embodied mestizo modernisms' refers to combinations of indigenous, folkloric, ballet, and modern dance practices in works choreographed by national and international dancers with different racial and social backgrounds. The book contends that these mestizo modernist dance practices challenged assumptions about racial neutrality with which whiteness historically established its ostensible supremacy in constructing Mexico's 'transnational nationalisms'. This argument holds that notions of the nation-state and national identities are not produced exclusively by a nation's natives but also by historical transnational forces and (dancing) bodies whose influences shape local politics, economic interests, and artistic practices.
By:  
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 160mm,  Width: 226mm,  Spine: 28mm
Weight:   408g
ISBN:   9780197622568
ISBN 10:   0197622569
Pages:   296
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Jose Luis Reynoso is Assistant Professor of Critical Dance Studies at UC Riverside. He was the Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow in Dances Studies in/and the Humanities at Northwestern University (2012-2014) and completed a M.F.A. in dance (2006) and Ph.D. in culture and performance (2012) at UCLA. He also holds a M.A. degree in psychology from California State University Los Angeles (2003). Dr. Reynoso has published articles on political economy and artistic ideology in postmodern dance practices in the US and Europe, dance studies and dance practices in Mexico, and mestizo dance modernisms in Latin America.

Reviews for Dancing Mestizo Modernisms: Choreographing Postcolonial and Postrevolutionary Mexico

"Reynoso offers a productive reformulation of danced Mestizaje as an anti-racist and inclusive instance of pluriversality that counters the racialized modernist pretense of universality, by centering Mexican contributions to the history of modern dance. This book is essential reading for scholars of performance and modern dance, but also of post-revolutionary Mexican visual culture at large. * Mary K. Coffey, Professor of Art History and Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies, Dartmouth College * In this compellingly written and deeply researched text, Jos´e Reynoso introduces the concept of embodied mestizo modernisms to theorize how national and international choreographers employed components of Indigenous, folkloric, ballet, and modern dance to both embrace and contest racial formations at key points in Mexican revolutionary and post-revolutionary history. A major intervention within dance and Latin American studies, it will shape future thinking around the relationship between modernist dance practices, the transnational circulation of artists, and race. * Victoria Fortuna, Associate Professor, Dance Department, Reed College * Deeply researched and theoretically astute, Dancing Mestizo Modernisms makes a profound contribution to contemporary dance studies, fulfilling the imperative to create a global dance history that decolonizes the curriculum. * Susan Manning, Bergen Evans Professor in the Humanities, Northwestern University * In this meticulously researched book, Dr. Reynoso analyzes dance not only as an art form, but also as a way of circulating ideologies that have taken part in the construction of racial and social notion of what ""Mexico"" is. The author traces how as a specific cultural field dance participated in political, social, and bodily dynamics from the country's postcolonial formation in the 1820s until mid-twentieth century. The book's theoretical approach makes an important contribution to the formulation of dance as an object of study while expanding our knowledge regarding art, cultural practices, and the construction of Mexico (and Latin American countries) as a nation. * Margarita Tortajada, National Center for Research, Documentation and Information Cenidi Danza ""Jos´e Lim´on"" *"


See Also