Modern primitives leaping and stomping the earth: From Ballet to bush doofs
Abstract
In the colonial history of black and white Australia, there are few recorded instances of public performances that draw together the traditions of Aboriginal and settler dance cultures to create mutually constitutive corporeal dialogues. Aboriginal academic Marcia
Langton argues in an oft-quoted observation that settler experiences of Aboriginal culture have remained over time primarily visual and distant, both spatially and culturally, rather than embodied and contingent. It is not surprising, then, that settler
encounters with Aboriginal performance have manifested primarily in spectatorship rather than interaction. In ...
View more >In the colonial history of black and white Australia, there are few recorded instances of public performances that draw together the traditions of Aboriginal and settler dance cultures to create mutually constitutive corporeal dialogues. Aboriginal academic Marcia Langton argues in an oft-quoted observation that settler experiences of Aboriginal culture have remained over time primarily visual and distant, both spatially and culturally, rather than embodied and contingent. It is not surprising, then, that settler encounters with Aboriginal performance have manifested primarily in spectatorship rather than interaction. In this paper, we explore two uncommon examples of embodied performance by non-Indigenous dancers directly inspired by white imaginings of Aboriginal culture. Exercising concern regarding the motivations and political implications of performance, we first examine the modernist ballet Corroboree (1954) and subsequently the neo-corroborees of contemporary ‘bush doof’ culture.
View less >
View more >In the colonial history of black and white Australia, there are few recorded instances of public performances that draw together the traditions of Aboriginal and settler dance cultures to create mutually constitutive corporeal dialogues. Aboriginal academic Marcia Langton argues in an oft-quoted observation that settler experiences of Aboriginal culture have remained over time primarily visual and distant, both spatially and culturally, rather than embodied and contingent. It is not surprising, then, that settler encounters with Aboriginal performance have manifested primarily in spectatorship rather than interaction. In this paper, we explore two uncommon examples of embodied performance by non-Indigenous dancers directly inspired by white imaginings of Aboriginal culture. Exercising concern regarding the motivations and political implications of performance, we first examine the modernist ballet Corroboree (1954) and subsequently the neo-corroborees of contemporary ‘bush doof’ culture.
View less >
Journal Title
Aboriginal History
Volume
31
Publisher URI
Copyright Statement
© 2007 Aboriginal History. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Literary Studies
Other Language, Communication and Culture
Historical Studies