In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

La Ondo Nuevo 38 Proximo: Latino Dance Recent scholarship in multiculturalism and issues about alternative canons and cultural authority have raised questions not only about how national, racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual identities are produced, but also about how the histories ofpeoples and cultural systems are written. Dance is usually overlooked as a site where cultural experience and knowledge are produced. Nevertheless, there are many instances, especially during the present period, ofdances that are distinctly meant to critique the discourse as well as the ideological assumptions of the culture in general, and of choreographic practice in particular, with respect to these issues ofpolitical identity. Among the most vital ofthe current challenges to the dance canon are works by postmodern choreographers that focus on the politically conscious articulation of difference in regard to "race," class, gender, ethnicity , and sexuality. To be sure, some issues ofpolitical identity have been and continue to be explored and celebrated in dance, by such groups as the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, Dance Theater of Harlem, and Ballet Hispanico. But in the 1980s for the first time various groups of young choreographers have identified themselves as bicultural in a specifically avant-garde mode: black and postmodern; gay and postmodern; Latino and postmodern. Their work is equally informed by their postmodern dance heritage and their political identities. That is, they see their affiliation with political groups as a radical engagement that impinges on and disrupts their artform's discursive practices . This essay on the work ofseveral Latina choreographers in New York is part of a larger project of documenting and analyzing the articulation of gender identity, the recognition ofsexual preference, and the affirmation of ethnic identity on the part of contemporary American choreographers. As we will see, in Latino postmodern dance at times these themes are interwoven . The group of Latina choreographers I am concerned with here emerged on the New York scene in the eighties and nineties. Their dances Choreography and Dance (1994) 327 328 'oslmodern Dance have been presented in "downtown" venues in New York like Dance Theater Workshop, P.S. 122, Movement Research, and P.S. 1. Their work has also been produced in festivals celebrating new dance, film, and performance art by Latinos-such as La Misma Onda, Tour de Fuerza, and jMuevete!. A number of issues arise in analyzing this work: the stance of the choreographer in terms of group identity and history; how notions of ethnicity are constructed in the representational practices of the dance; how ethnicity is seen to be constructed in the culture at large; what devices are used as signifiers of "race," class, gender, and sexuality in the dances; where and how language is used as part of the discourse of the dance; what other postrnodern interventions take place; what kinds ofimages ofLatinos these signs produce, reproduce, or critique; what audiences the choreographer addresses in thework. Space does will not permit me to discuss here all of these items for each dance. However, I hope to suggest the trajectory of my larger research project, in which I plan to analyze the strategies of pursuing identity in dance, in this case LatinaILatino identity. I view these strategies as fundamental to a twin project that challenges the master narratives and myths of homogeneity in our culture as well as the specific discursive practices of mainstream dance. The Latino postrnodern dance I am discussing originated in New York City. So, before turning my attention to specific dances, I would like to sketch a brief demography of Latinos in New York. Also, I would like to point out that I am using the term LatinaILatino, which is preferred by many scholars in the field of Latin American studies, rather than the term Hispanic. As Xavier Totti explains, "Hispanic excludes racial and cultural differences, evoking only Spaniards and their descendants. Latino (from Latin American ) is a more inclusive term accounting for those who come or descend from a specific geographical area where the Spanish and Portuguese legacy is dominant but not exclusive. It recognizes the presence and importance of nonwhite populations (Amerindian and African) in the group."l There were already Puerto Rican and Cuban communities in New York City in the nineteenth century. But a much larger Latino population arrived in NewYork afterWorld War II. The demography shifted even more radically after changes in the immigration laws in 1965 and 1978, and with the rise of illegal immigration. Because the largest wave of immigration began during the rise of suburbia and the decline...

Share