Performative Participation: Embodiment of Identities and Relationships in Sabar Dance Events (original) (raw)

Dance Ethnography and Global Perspectives. Identity, Embodiment and Culture., 2014

Abstract

This chapter discusses the performativity of Senegalese sabar dancing. The sabar is an individual dance form: it is danced as short improvised solos, with one or a few people at a time in the middle of the dance space. But it is also a social dance form, where each solo comments on others and communicates with the accompanying drumming. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the chapter presents how local conceptions of social status become embodied and how identities and interpersonal relationships are expressed performatively in sabar dance events. Sabar dance events are separate from everyday life, but everyday life is often reflected in sabar dancing where friendships and conflicts between people can be articulated through movements and gestures.

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