Dancing the New World: Aztecs, Spaniards, and the Choreography of Conquest by Paul A Scolieri (review)

In this insightful and beautifully illustrated study titled Dancing the New World: Aztecs, Spaniards, and the Choreography of Conquest, Paul Scolieri appeals to readers interested in the conquest of the Aztecs, particularly, Aztec dancing, its meaning, and its role in representing the conquest. Through intriguing pictures and engaging phrases, such as “dancing the new world” and “the choreography of conquest” found on the book’s cover page and elsewhere in the text, Scolieri provokes curiosity as to the type of setting and portrayal of the conquest that this particular book presents. The exquisite cover art portrays the paradox of civilization committing barbaric acts against those commonly conceived as uncivilized, the Aztec people. In the first pages, the reader encounters an index of maps and images that tastefully vivify the text. By comprising this remarkable imagery and a wealth of detailed narratives, the book fulfills its title’s promise of presenting a choreography of the conquest.

The author begins the introduction by establishing the analytical tone of his book and then transitions swiftly to examine relevant stories and descriptions of early Aztec dances as portrayed by the chroniclers. This section also analyzes how chroniclers and missionaries often inserted their role in the annihilation of indigenous cultures and the birth of a new government into the accounts of indigenous embodied performance. Additionally, this section includes an extensive review of historical world events leading up to the conquest. Among these events, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain is described as an incident that helped “unify and expand the Spanish global empire” (5); although the unification of Spain was one of the underlying arguments for the expulsion of the Jews, the text could be revised to place such an argument within its historical dialogical context. Nonetheless, the introduction provides an accurate, rich, and useful encyclopedic background for terms such as autos sacramentales, calpulli, and moros y cristianos or staged reenactments of military battles between Moors and Christians.

The book’s first chapter is a succinct study of the areito dance and the chroniclers’ conceptualization of this dance as a practice of divination, a form of writing, and a means of political resistance; the chapter successfully sustains that the descriptions of the areito dance provided by the chroniclers’ first encounters sets the foundation for thinking about the concepts of indigenous dance and “Indians” until the twentieth century. To support this assertion, Scolieri lucidly examines prior relevant studies of areito dance. While the first chapter focuses on areito dance, the subsequent chapter offers a careful analysis of diverse Aztec dances; both chapters contain a well-organized set of references that trace back to some of the earliest writings about dance in the New World. In addition, chapter 2 identifies how these writings come from the conqueror’s perspective as opposed to the social realities, which the dancing attempts to represent.

Chapter 3 assesses the Florentine Codex, offering a meticulous synthesis of references concerning Aztec ritual dance, its origins, and its connection to Aztec mythology; by doing so, this chapter effectively supports that the main purpose of the Florentine Codex is to help missionaries identify how the natives could continue to perform their sacred rites after the conquest. To sustain this proposal, Scolieri also examines the methodology used to collect the information found in the Florentine Codex. This section describes in detail, and with accompanying drawings, the Aztec sacrificial dances presented in the Florentine Codex, including dances used to terrorize children prior to their sacrifice; the Aztecs believed children’s tears guaranteed future rains needed for agriculture. The analysis of these dances and insightful interpretations provide a noteworthy foundation for researchers of Aztec dancing and worldview. This chapter, however, includes a reference to the Aztec empire as the “largest and wealthiest indigenous empire in the New World” (91). Although the Aztec empire could arguably have been the wealthiest in the New World, the Incas were a...