Abstract
Viewing Nelisiwe Xaba's Fremde Tänze (2014) in Berlin and Chicago revealed differing levels of meaning in the work. In Berlin the work exposed and parodied the white gaze of the black female dancer, while in Chicago the work vivified the gap between the responses of black and white spectators.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 54-72 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | TDR - The Drama Review - A Journal of Performance Studies |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 1 2020 |
Funding
Fremde Tänze came to the Berlin stage as part of a curatorial initiative funded by Tanzfonds Erbe, the German Dance Heritage Fund. Established in 2011, Tanzfonds Erbe followed the lead of contemporary European choreographers like Jérôme Bel, Boris Charmatz, and Xavier Le Roy by subsidizing the reperformance of works from the modernist canon.2Tanzfonds Erbe supported conventional reconstructions — for example, of Mary Wigman’s Totentanz (Dance of Death) from 1926 and Le Sacre du Printemps from 1957 — as well as more reflexive and imaginative engagements with earlier works: for example, Christoph Winkler received support for his own choreography titled after Wigman’s and Tom Schilling’s Abendliche Tänze (Evening Dances; 1924) and for a festival where he commissioned a range of choreographers from inside and outside Germany to take on Wigman’s iconic Hexentanz (Witch Dance; 1926). And Wigman was not the only earlier German choreographer to receive attention: so too did Clotilde Sacharoff, Alexander Sacharoff, Rudolf Laban, Kurt Jooss, Oskar Schlemmer, Jean Weidt, Anita Berber, Harald Kreutzberg, Yvonne Georgi, Gertrude Bodenwieser, Marianne Vogelsang, and Dore Hoyer.3
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Visual Arts and Performing Arts
- Literature and Literary Theory