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

Dance in Africa is both a profound truth and a controversial stereotype of African cultures, yet its scholarly literature remains surprisingly scant. The integration of dance into the cultural politics of early post-independence Senegal, as led by president-poet Leopold Senghor, was based on negritude, a utopian pan-Africanism whose artistic blossoming still inspires Senegalese urban life. Like other cultural historians ignored here, Elizabeth Harney discussed this in In Senghor's Shadow: Art, Politics, and the Avant-garde in Senegal, 1960-1995 (2004). Instead of their broad focus, this book (a revised dissertation) joins its predecessors by situating choreography in the reflexive politics of corporeality coexperienced by researchers and their interlocutors. Castaldi's strongest moments lie in her deconstruction of the curious syntheses of "national ballets," which perform merged imaginaries for largely expatriate audiences. Exotic, supposedly "authentic" choreographies may result, but so may brilliant postmodern creations, as evidenced by the recent efforts of Senegalese choreographer extraordinaire Germaine Acogny. Castaldi also presents the "erotic aesthetics of sabar" (through which "women physically take over the public space of the city"), thus contributing to the work of Deborah Heath, Hudita Mustafa, and others who study the gender dynamics of urban Senegalese women's corporeal constructions. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. A. F. Roberts University of California, Los Angeles