Broken windows and dancing bodies: Politics of movement in New York City’s salsa scene

Within this thesis, I explore various facets of New York City’s salsa scene. I first examine the political history of cabaret laws in New York City throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, and demonstrate that these laws had drastic impacts on marginalized populations within the city. Although I include other genres within my exploration of these laws, I give particular focus to salsa music and dance, which I contend were silent casualties of Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s enforcement of the cabaret law in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I then move to discuss my own experiences learning to salsa dance within contemporary spaces in New York City and the context-specific meanings that accrue on the site of the dancing body. While utilizing a phenomenological approach and contextualizing my own movements within the complex, highly contested history of nightlife within New York City, I assert that the processes of learning to dance can engender spatial and interpersonal transformation.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.Mus.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2019

Author dc:creator

• Blefko, Sydney

Contributors dc:contributor

• Silvers, Michael B.
• Buchanan, Donna

• salsa
• dance
• New York City
• Rudy Giuliani
• quality of life
• policing
• 1990s
• cabaret law
• nightlife

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2019 Sydney Blefko

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/104848

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/104848