Choreographies of African identities : négritude, dance, and the National Ballet of Senegal / Francesca Castaldi.

Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of California, Riverside.

Includes bibliographies and index.

Introduction : positionality and the choreography of theory -- The National Ballet of Senegal at a theatre in California -- African dance, Africanist discourse, and negritude -- The National Ballet of Senegal at a theatre in Dakar -- Sabar dances and a women's public sphere -- Tales of betrayals -- The circulation of dances on and off the stage -- Urban ballets and the professionalization of dance -- Exploiting terànga -- Conclusion : negritude reconsidered.

"Structured as a polyrhythmic ensemble, the narrative in Francesca Castaldi's Choreographies of African Identities "sounds" three interrelated interpretations of the work of the National Ballet of Senegal, each interpretation overlapping with the others as the layering of tracks in a music score." "The first interpretative track situates the work of the Ballet in a North American theater, exposing the theatrical and extra-theatrical procedures that collude in racializing the encounter between performers and audiences as that between Black dancers and White spectators." "The second line of analysis examines the work of the National Ballet in relation to Leopold Sedar Senghor's Negritude ideology and cultural politics, engaging in larger debates over African aesthetics, modernity and tradition, globalization, and cultural diversity." "Finally a third interpretative track presents the circulation of dances in the streets, discotheques, and courtyards of Dakar, drawing attention to women dancers' occupation of the urban landscape. In this context, Castaldi explores the agency of women's performance in negotiating Islamic religiosity, gender, and class identities in the dancing circle and the public arena. Taken together, the reading weaves together questions about scholarship, the cross-cultural circulation of performance, national politics, and urban youth culture. Book jacket."--Jacket

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