Citizenship, Deviance, and Identity

esse arts + opinions, 2013

The Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society, vol. 33, n° 4, Winter 2004; 316-335., 2004

Breakdancing in France has undergone a process of institutionalization, or rather: multiple, interdependent processes of institutionalization. Persons participating in hip-hop dance in France today are engaged in an ongoing controversy involving three main definitions of breakdancing: as art, as competition, and as a tool for socialization. These command three main processes of institutionalization : art, battle and education. Paradoxically, the social actors concerned also participate in a common world structured by competing views as to how hip-hop dance should be defined and conducted.

2014

Comunicacao realizada a 30 de junho de 2014 no âmbito da "IV Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture" - que decorreu entre 30 de junho a 5 de julho de 2014 -, subordinado ao tema "Latencies: Europe 1914-2014". Com organizacao da Universidade Catolica Portuguesa - Lisbon Consortium (site do evento: https://lisbonconsortium.com/summer-school/iv-lisbon-summer-school-for-the-study-of-culture/).

El único libro académico en inglés dedicado a la danza contemporánea europea reciente, Exhausting Dance: Performance and the Politics of Movement examina el trabajo de coreógrafos contemporáneos clave que han transformado la escena de la danza desde principios de la década de 1990 en Europa y Estados Unidos. A través de su diálogo vívido y explícito con el arte escénico, las artes visuales y la teoría crítica de los últimos treinta años, esta nueva generación de coreógrafos desafía nuestra comprensión de la danza agotando el concepto de movimiento. Su trabajo exige ser leído como extensiones realizadas de la política radical implícita en el arte de la performance, en la teoría post-estructuralista y crítica, en la teoría poscolonial y en los estudios críticos de la raza. En este extenso y excepcional estudio, Andre Lepecki analiza brillantemente el trabajo de los coreógrafos: Jerome Bel (Francia), Juan Dominguez (España), Trisha Brown (Estados Unidos), La Ribot (España), Xavier Le Roy (Francia-Alemania), Vera Mantero (Portugal) y artistas visuales y de performance: Bruce Nauman (Estados Unidos), William Pope.L (Estados Unidos). Este libro ofrece una revisión significativa y radical de nuestra forma de pensar sobre la danza, defendiendo la necesidad de un compromiso renovado entre los estudios de danza y las prácticas artísticas y filosóficas experimentales.

Esse Arts Opinions, 2013

Popular Inquiry, 2020

Routines are originally considered to be the pillars of stability and security. They make us feel homey and in control, even if they can be boring and monotonous. Brushing teeth, dressing or cleaning are tasks that we perform almost automatically every day and in their repetitiveness we find a balance against the unpredictability of reality outside our homes. Usually, the routine is acceptable because it can be disrupted. Breaks are necessary to appreciate the ordinariness. But what if the ruptures are eliminated? What if everyday routine becomes a permanent condition? During social quarantine restrictions, the number of domestic videos in which people are doing various domestic chores in a performative way began to increase rapidly on social networks. Of course, the intertwining of dance and everydayness is not a new phenomenon. But what if it is no longer a dance that appropriates elements and gestures of everyday life, but it is everydayness that parasitizes on dance? In my study, I will try to demonstrate how the obligatory curfew deprives everyday habits of their original function and why this dance or performative movement can be one of the effective tools to bring the safety and familiarity back in the routine. I claim that so-called performative presence can make everydayness and ordinary bearable again.

2021

American Anthropologist, 1989

Everyday Nationhood, 2017

I hesitate, unsure of what to do. Elnara's 1 cousin Nigar is inviting me over and over again to join her on the dance floor. I am sitting at 1 out of 14 decorated tables in an elaborately decorated, ornamental hall. It is Elnara's daughter Leyla's first birthday and I am celebrating her special day together with about 100 other adults and a dozen children. Judging from the size and the glamour of the birthday party, the combination of elegant evening wears, a four-course meal, the announcements, the music and the dancing, this evening event feels like a truly special occasion. Nigar flashes me a smile and beckons to me. While gently tripping from one foot to the other, she is swinging her arms gracefully to the rhythm of the music. The music is fast and the sound drowns any table talk. My inner voice tells me that I should join the other women on the dance floor; out of respect and to feel more like a proper part of the celebration.