Gesture, Gender, Nation: Dance and Social Change in Uzbekistan (review)

In Gesture, Gender, Nation, Mary Masayo Doi draws from classic anthropological literature, dance scholarship, and practice theory to explain the role of dance in the formation of a national identity in Uzbekistan from the early Soviet period through the present. She argues that Soviets used dance as a tool of social change, unifying the republic's diverse ethnic groups while altering Muslim women's traditional roles through dance training and performance. Her work is primarily based on field research conducted in 1992 and 1994 and includes life histories, videotaping, and participant observation.

Doi's introduction describes Uzbek lifeways and social organization. In chapter 1, "Gender, Kinship, and Nationalism," she focuses on traditional gender roles and kinship systems in order to provide the proper context in which to understand female dancers' position in society. Traditionally, women are seen as guests by their parents and servants by their in-laws, but gain status through child bearing and old age. The Soviets encouraged Uzbek women to study and pursue careers, but tension between old and new gender roles remained. Kinship ties among large families are the foundation of Uzbek society, and rural Uzbekistanis still live in extended-family compounds. The chapter concludes with an exploration of kinship ties, particularly fraternal ones, and adoption as metaphors for Uzbek national unity, as well as a discussion on how Uzbek gender roles affected the author's fieldwork experience.

Chapter 2, "Taboo Breakers: The Early Soviet Years," examines the lives, training, and repertoire of three pioneering dancers during the period of 1924-1942, highlighting the drastic changes Uzbek women experienced. Tamara Khonim, Roziya Karimova, and Mukarram Turghunbayeva were some of the first women in this Muslim state to perform unveiled. The analysis of Turghunbayeva's dance, Tanovar, which "weaves together themes of national identity, complicity and resistance to Soviet reforms, and changing norms about gender" (p. 57), demonstrates the importance of dance to the formation of a pan-Uzbek consciousness and to the comparative liberation of Uzbek women in the earlytwentieth century.

The third chapter, "The War Years: 'We Made Dance a Beautiful Diamond,'" centers on the training of dancers during 1943-1953, which focused on ensemble work rather than the individual dancer; the recruitment of Uzbek dancers into the military to provide entertainment; and the institutionalization of Uzbek dance as training became standardized. Doi spotlights the experiences of two female dancers trained during this period, one at the Bolshoi Ballet School and the other in Tashkent's Pioneer Palace, and discusses current teaching practices. She introduces the concept of "kinetic domains," or sets of related concepts that "corresponded to a geographic map of ethnic identities within Uzbekistan" (p. 84), in order to explain the Uzbek dance school curriculum, which conditions students to view Uzbek national identity as a unification of the three main geocultural regions and dance styles: Farghana, Bukhara, and Khorezm.

Chapter 4, "From Genealogical to Generic," discusses the period from 1954 through independence, when Uzbek dance was commodified as Soviets centralized its production and prepared it for export. Though dancers may come from rural areas with their own unique dance forms, to become professionals they must be trained in Moscow or Tashkent, where they learn "national" dances that contrast with their social or folkloric dances. "National" dances in the three principal styles have become standardized and somewhat simplified into a "stereotype of regional identity" (p. 105).

The final chapter, "Independence," discusses the effects of Uzbekistan's new national status on dancers during 1991-1994. The life histories of two young dancers illustrate the choices faced between family and profession in the new, inflated economy. They are contrasted with a young bride following the more traditional Central Asian path of domesticity, and Doi describes the use of dance at this young woman's wedding. Finally, there is an examination of the newly created Uzbek Independence Day celebrations...