Authenticity is a notion much debated, among discussants as diverse as cultural theorists and art dealers, music critics and tour operators. The desire to find and somehow capture or protect the “authentic” narrative, art object, or ceremonial dance is hardly new. In this masterful examination of German and American folklore studies from the eighteenth century to the present, Regina Bendix demonstrates that the longing for authenticity remains deeply implicated in scholarly approaches to cultural analysis. Searches for authenticity, Bendix contends, have (...) been a constant companion to the feelings of loss inherent in modernization, forever upholding a belief in a pristine yet endangered cultural essence and fueling cultural nationalism worldwide. Beginning with precursors of Herder and Emerson and the “discovery” of the authentic in expressive culture and literature, she traces the different, albeit intertwined, histories of German Volkskunde and American folklore studies. A Swiss native educated in American folklore programs, Bendix moves effortlessly between the two traditions, demonstrating how the notion of authenticity was used not only to foster national causes, but also to lay the foundations for categories of documentation and analysis within the nascent field of folklore studies. Bendix shows that, in an increasingly transcultural world, where Zulu singers back up Paul Simon and where indigenous artists seek copyright for their traditional crafts, the politics of authenticity mingles with the forces of the market. Arguing against the dichotomies implied in the very idea of authenticity, she underscores the emptiness of efforts to distinguish between folklore and fakelore, between echt and ersatz. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to explore the Irish dancing body by combining the growing social science interest in mobility with the established area of the body as a site of culture. On the basis of ethnographic observations and interviews about dance and culture in Ireland, I will discuss the Irish dancing body in relation to the construction of social memory, the embodiment of values linked to Irish national identity, mobility, dance competitions and global touring. First, I will detail (...) three distinct movement sequences from different dance forms in Ireland: competitive Irish dancing, dance theatre and Riverdance(the commercial Irish dance show). Second, I will look at how dance can be said to travel around Ireland, north and south, as well as back and forth to Ireland. The idea of the Irish dancing body offers an example of the unity of body and mind in dance, revealing also that abstract dance and movement communicate stories about their societies. In Irish dance, these stories feature displacement, longing and resistance, often steeped in the history. I conclude that this social memory connects a distinct Irish tradition with European modernity. (shrink)

An ethnographer's account of his study of jazz-piano playing, which led to discoveries concerning the ways his hands learned about the keyboard and improvisation, sheds light on the nature and range of improvised conduct.

This article investigates the ways in which discourses and experiences of health and healing have shaped the development of contemporary dance in France. It confronts the problem of how to situate contemporary dance in relation to other dance genres and suggests Robert Desjarlais’ concept of the ‘aesthetic of experience’ as a helpful framework for understanding the ways in which technique and virtuosity operate differently in contemporary dance than in other dance forms. The article is ethnographic and historical and attempts to (...) create a dialogue between dance studies and medical anthropology. The ethnographic and historical material has three parts. First, I offer an analysis of the cultural idiom of illness as blocageand argue that contemporary dancers in Aix-en-Provence experience their work as a form of healing or dÈblocage. Next, I show how two historical and political events in France led to the promotion of dance as a means of social reform: (1) the Situationist art movement of the 1960s and its idea of ‘awakening’ society through public art; and (2) the renovation of the French Ministry of Culture in 1982 and its subsequent promotion of contemporary dance in state-funded community outreach projects in the 1980s. Finally, drawing on rich narratives from fieldwork interviews, I define awareness, expression and presence as the primary technical elements of contemporary dance in Aix-en-Provence, France, in 2002, and explain their relationship to the notion of ‘dance as l'intervention’ that has grown out of the historical context of contemporary dance in France. (shrink)