Corporeal Politics: Dancing East Asia

Mezur, Katherine

doi:doi:10.3998/mpub.11521701

Katherine Mezur and Emily Wilcox, Editors

2020

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In Corporeal Politics, leading international scholars investigate the development of dance as a deeply meaningful and complex cultural practice across time, placing special focus on the intertwining of East Asia dance and politics and the role of dance as a medium of transcultural interaction and communication across borders. Countering common narratives of dance history that emphasize the US and Europe as centers of origin and innovation, the expansive creativity of dance artists in East Asia asserts its importance as a site of critical theorization and reflection on global artistic developments in the performing arts.

Through the lens of "corporeal politics"—the close attention to bodily acts in specific cultural contexts—each study in this book challenges existing dance and theater histories to re-investigate the performer's role in devising the politics and aesthetics of their performance, as well as the multidimensional impact of their lives and artistic works. Corporeal Politics addresses a wide range of performance styles and genres, including dances produced for the concert stage, as well as those presented in popular entertainments, private performance spaces, and street protests.

Series

Studies in Dance: Theories and Practices

ISBN(s)

978-0-472-05455-8 (paper)
978-0-472-12694-1 (ebook)
978-0-472-07455-6 (hardcover)

Subject

Citable Link

Figure 4.1. Murayama Tomoyoshi in bobbed hair and a dress stands barefoot and barelegged, arms spread like eagle wings, leaning and staring forward in front of a stone fireplace.

Murayama Tomoyoshi at Jiyu Gakuen, 1923

From Chapter 4

Fig. 4.1. Murayama Tomoyoshi dancing at Jiyū Gakuen in 1923. Source: Murayama Tomoyoshi: Get All of Me Seething exhibition catalogue, 2012. Photo no. III-134, p. 117. Available at https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11521701.cmp.7.

Figure 4.2. Murayama in bobbed hair, a dress, and high heels, twists his body and steps forward in a deep knee bend. Okada crouches, feet turned out, twisting torso bent forward.

Murayama Tomoyoshi and Okada Tatsuo at Chieruteru no kai, 1924

From Chapter 4

Fig. 4.2. Murayama Tomoyoshi and Okada Tatsuo dancing at Chieruteru no kai in 1924. Source: Murayama Tomoyoshi: Get All of Me Seething exhibition catalogue, 2012. Photo no. III-137, p. 119. Available at https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11521701.cmp.8.

Figure 6.1. Dai Ailian poses on a rock ledge looking up toward the sky. Her arms are outstretched, her legs lunging, and she wears a costume like the flag of the Republic of China.

Dai Ailian in Guerilla March, 1940

From Chapter 6

Fig. 6.1. Dai Ailian in Hong Kong performing a dance pose from her solo dance Guerilla March. South China Morning Post, October 16, 1940. Photographer unknown. Used with permission of South China Morning Post. Available at https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.mpub.11521701.cmp.11.

Figure 9.1. Itō sits, arm resting against chair back, face turned out. His hair is white, and his face wears an expression of calm interest, with a hint of a smile.

Michio Itō, 1938

From Chapter 9

Fig, 9.1. Michio Itō, October 1938, California. Photo by Johan Hagemeyer, from the Johan Hagemeyer photograph collection, BANC PIC 1964.063 Ito, Michio :005—PIC, © The Regents of the University of California, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Available at https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11521701.cmp.17.

Figure 9.2. Men at right stretch arms as if shooting arrows, confront women on left in poses of dismay. Below, a male dancer holds aloft a woman draped in a back-bend over his head.

Prince Igor at Hollywood Bowl

From Chapter 9

Fig. 9.2. Prince Igor at Hollywood Bowl. Los Angeles Evening Herald, August 14, 1930. Artist and photographer unknown. Courtesy Los Angeles Philharmonic Archive. Available at https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11521701.cmp.18.

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