New deadline: June 15, 2001

Searching for papers that relate to:

DANCE AND CULTURE

We encourage lively, performative sessions of papers or panels about popular dance forms and their relationships to culture. We seek a variety of critical approaches.

Examinations of race, gender, class, and other social constructions are often lacking or inadequate in dance criticism of popular and/or commercial forms of dance performance and practice. We welcome global, interdisciplinary, and international perspectives and encourage the linkage of theory and performances in individual and group presentations and papers.

Because of the location of the conference, panels and papers are especially encouraged about folk and popular dances from Mexico, Latin, and Central American countries, such as Salsa, Samba, Afro-Cuban, Tango, and many others.

We are also interested in North American dance forms that are African-American, Appalachian, Jazz-Tap Dancing, and/or Celtic. Presentations on the dances of indigenous peoples are strongly encouraged. The following presentations have already been accepted for the conference:

1. Kena Bastien van der Meer, Centro Nacional de las Artes, Mexico: "El Reclutamiento de Huerfanos Para la Danza: Un Estudio de Caso"
2. Sophie Bidault, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico: "Cancan y Frivolidad: Un Retrato de la Sociedad Porfirana en la Belle Epoque"
3. Hayward Farrar, Virginia Tech: "The African Roots of Stepping"
4. Grace Okrah, University of Michigan, "The Social Functions of Stepping at Predominantly White and Historically Black Colleges and Universities"
5. Kristin Wendland, Emory University: “Rhythm, Meter, and Dance of the Argentine Tango"
6. Juliet McMains: University of California, Riverside, "Technique and Sabor in 'Latin' American Social Dance"
7. Ana Sánchez-Colberg (Theatre EnCorps, Puerto Rico/UK) and Eugenio Cueto Barragán (Ballet Experimental Contemporáneo, Colombia): "Futur/Perfekt: Of Dance, Continents, Memory and History"
8. Susan Eike Spalding, Berea College: "Constructive Leisure or Cultural Imperialism: Dance at Pine Mountain Settlement School
9. Anita Gonzalez, Florida State University, "Mambo and The Maya"
10. Marilyn G. Miller, Tulane University: "Guayaberismo and the Essence of Cool"
11. Ann Axtmann, New York University: "Diaspora, History and Power: Native American Fancy Dancing."
12. Maria Hnaraki, Indiana University: "Speaking Without Words: Cretan Wedding Dance as Expression, Dialogue and Communication"
13. Ann Kilkelly, Virginia Tech: "Tapping the Margins: Gender, Race, Class"
14. Robin Wilson, "Vernacular Jazz"
15. Elizabeth Fine, Virginia Tech: "The Birth of Latino Stepping"

Please send a typed abstract of 250 words. Give the name and academic title of each presenter and give the name and complete address of the main presenter. Include the telephone number, fax number, mail address, and e-mail address of the main author. Must indicate all AV and space requirements; performances should be manageable without any complex production.

Abstracts be sent via email, fax or mail to the addresses and numbers below.

Deadline for proposals is 15 June, 2001. Exhibits, displays, poster sessions are also invited. This Area is a strand within the Popular Culture Association meeting in Puebla, Mexico. For full information about the conference, check the conference web site: www.udlap.mx/congress 

(This meeting is one of the international activities of the national Popular Culture Association and the Program Chair is Peter Rollins, RollinsPC@aol.com)