Die Jahrestagung, die an Universitäten weltweit stattfindet, wird in diesem Jahr von der Universität Köln organisiert. Die Vorträge werden in englischer Sprache gehalten.

Other "Others": Outsiders and Ancestors from Basque Carnival to New Mexican Matachines

Lindsey Drury

June 13, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Performance and Migration Sponsored Panel: On Carnival and Migration

Abstract:

Among New Mexico's diverse Indigenous, Mestizo, Hispano, and other mixed settler and immigrant peoples and communities, Matachines dance dramas have over centuries provided performance forums for relating otherwise incommensurable histories and colonial memories. In turns violent and sweet, bawdy and yet reverent, Matachines entangle the encounter between Cortes, Moctezuma, and La Malinche with the birth of Jesus to Mary and Joseph, further bringing these together with the history of the religious conversion of the Indigenous peoples by the Spanish, and narratives of Aztlán, the mythological ancestral home of the Aztec. In attempts to trace the formal aesthetic source materials of Matachines, anthropologists, folklorists, and historians have variously argued which choreographic figures, costumes, and steps originate among Spanish conquistadors or Indigenous Americans. In this paper, I set aside the pursuit of "origins" to instead investigate anti-colonial processes of subversion and metamorphosis expressed in Matachines. Toward that end, I compare New Mexican Matachines with Basque carnival forms. My work draws on the preeminence of Basque conquistadors in the colonization of New Mexico, beginning with Juan de Oñate, and considers multiple references to Basque carnival dancing in NM Matachines literature. I center the difference that arises between Basque carnival forms and New Mexican Matachines through the 'Others' these forms perform. As the theorist and anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro once said, 'others are "other" precisely because they have other ‘"others"' (1999, 80). Matachines, I argue, complexly interfere in the concept of the 'Other' itself, relating caricatures of 'outsider' with those of 'ancestor'.

Critical Approaches to Antisemitism in Dance and Dance Theory

Alina Saggerer

June 13, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

New Scholars Forum Panel: Stages of Subversion, and Cultural Diplomacy

Abstract:

Building on my doctoral project, I explore how dance and choreography can be understood as forms of iconoclasm. Can it be understood and function as a critique of idolatry and therefore open up the potential to critically engage with antisemitism? This approach connects dance theory with antisemitism theory, not only to examine their intersections but also to generate new perspectives on critiquing antisemitism. At the same time, it highlights how dance can function as a critical medium that goes beyond merely thematizing antisemitism, instead working to dismantle it on a deeper theoretical level. Drawing on the role of the biblical ban on images and its relevance for antisemitism theory, I examine how the ephemeral nature of dance can be seen as inherently image-critical and even iconoclastic. This raises the question: How can structural and dynamic qualities of dance critique antisemitic mechanisms without making them explicit? Rather than relying on direct representation, I explore how dance and choreography can challenge societal and psychological dynamics of antisemitism, such as resentment and envy, which manifest in exclusion and scapegoating. Selected works of choreographer and director Saar Magal will serve as key case studies to illustrate these dynamics. Can dance, by negating the existing, open up a new relationship to the Other?