Dancing the New World: Aztecs, Spaniards, and the Choreography of Conquest

Acknowledgments

x i a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s Dancing the New World began as a dissertation in the Department of Performance Studies at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. I bene- fited immeasurably from the innovative scholarly environment created by its faculty and students, as well as from the outstanding mentorship of José E. Mu- ñoz, Marcia B. Siegel, and Diana Taylor. For continually sharing her genius and encouragement, I owe a special debt of gratitude to Barbara Browning, my advisor. As a faculty member at Barnard College, I received invaluable institutional support as well as endless inspiration from faculty, administrators, and students , especially from my distinguished colleagues in the Department of Dance, the Program in Africana Studies, the Consortium for Critical Interdisciplinary Studies, and the Center for the Critical Analysis of Social Difference at Columbia University. Special thanks to Mary Cochran, Lynn Garafola, Kim F. Hall, Janet Jakobsen, and Janet Soares. In 2008–2009, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University invited me to spend the academic year in residence as the Peggy Rockefeller Visiting Scholar in order to conduct research for this book. I am deeply grateful to DRCLAS faculty and administration for the extraordinary experience, as well as to my cohort of visiting scholars, who generously offered advice that led me to important discoveries, directions, and depths. Many archivists, librarians, and museum curators throughout Europe, Mexico, and the United States generously provided me with research assistance and permission to publish the astonishing dance-related images that appear in this book. I especially wish to acknowledge the Archive of Early American Images , John Carter Brown Library, Brown University (Providence, RI); Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (Florence, Italy); Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia (Mexico City, Mexico); Houghton Library and Tozzer Library, Harvard University (Cambridge , MA); the Instituto Nacional de Antropolog ía e Historia (Mexico City, Mexico); Museo del Templo Mayor (Mexico City, Mexico); and the New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division (New York, NY). In the early stages of this project, I began to study Nahuatl (the Aztec language) at the Nahuatl Summer Language Institute at Yale University. I thank Jonathan Amith and Una Canger for their thoughtful instruction. R. Joe Campbell generously shared his remarkable research into the linguistic aspects of the Florentine Codex, which helped me to clarify several arguments I present in this book. For sharing their expertise and insights regarding aspects of my research, I thank Lynn Matluck Brooks, Max Harris, and Frances Kartunnen. Fiona Buckland, Pamela Cobrin, Alma Guillermoprieto , and Rhonda Rubinson read sections of the x i i d a n c i n g t h e n e w w o r l d book in manuscript form and responded with characteristic grace and brilliance. I thank Theresa J. May, editor-in-chief at the University of Texas Press, for her enthusiastic support of this book; Scott Metcalfe and Liam Moore for permission to publish their elegant translations; and Molly O’Halloran for her gorgeous maps. Over the years I have had the pleasure of serving on the boards of directors of three scholarly organizations —the Congress on Research in Dance, the Society of Dance History Scholars, and the World Dance Alliance–Americas. I am grateful for the many opportunities to present my research at these organizations’ conferences and for the incisive questions and suggestions I have received from dance scholars as a result. I am eternally grateful for the affection and support of my family and friends, a few of whom I must mention by name: Catherine Murphy, for the conviction that dance is always meaningful; Marie Scolieri, for her ways with words; Bruce Glikas, for countless theatrical diversions; and my parents, Antonino and Genivieve Scolieri, for their endless encouragement. And finally, for his indomitable belief in me and the distinct honor of his love, I dedicate this book to Lavinel Savu. dancing the new world THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK ...