The Village on the Stage: Dramaturgies of Modernity in African Concert Dance

<p>My dissertation, <em>The Village on the Stage: Dramaturgies of Modernity in African Concert Dance</em>, analyzes the underlying theatrical logic in African concert dance through a dramaturgical model I call <em>the village on the stage</em>. The <em>village on the stage</em> dramaturgy has had multiple iterations over the 20^th and 21^st centuries both across the African continent and the African diaspora. Commonly presented within the world-dance market as neo-traditional African dance, the <em>village on the stage</em> refers to a set of practices of staging traditional dance and music of Africa and the African diaspora and serves as a platform on which Pan-Africanism, colonialism, post-colonialism, and anti- and de- coloniality can be witnessed and explored. Through a dramaturgical methodology that attends to the processes that transform ideas and cultural and political imperatives into theatrical practice and reads choreography as a statement of embodied ideas, this project explores multiple iterations of the <em>village on the stage</em> to show how modernity is renegotiated in relation to the idea of ‘Africa’ by African dance theatre artists. Whether the term <em>village on the</em> <em>stage</em> is employed directly to describe the mise-en-scène of a theatrical production or as a generic description of African dance in recital format, as a dramaturgical strategy, the transformation of complex ‘traditional’ performances into neo-traditional dances within a western-style performance orientation functions as a conceptual apparatus that continues to operate even when the narrative/discourse of tradition drops out. The thesis explores how the trope of the village continues to haunt and inspire the artistic production of contemporary African dance and theatre artists.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Theatre and Performance

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2024

Author dc:creator

• Edwards, Margit N

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Peter Eckersall

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• James F. Wilson
• Herman Bennett

• Africana Studies
• Dance
• Theatre and Performance Studies
• African Dance
• Modernity
• Dramaturgy
• Representation
• Village
• Theatre
• West Africa
• Authenticity

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5794

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-6968