Abstract

Dance regularly contributes to the discourse of our society. For many years, it has borne witness to political events, social customs and the agenda of the day. Whether we are always aware of it or not, the dancer as artist in society is political, and can make a difference in the world we live in through being present. I am interested to question and ponder what that can reveal about to ourselves. How do we, as dance practitioners, make ourselves more visible as diverse protagonists? What role do we play as leaders in making the practices and contributions of artists ‘seen’ and properly recognized? As a follow up to our recent event ODD2, I interviewed Patricia Carolin Mai, Yinka Graves, and melisandre varin. This article aims to show how these artists contribute to the concept of dance democracy through their artistic choices as informed by perceptions of who they are and what their work means to them. Creating Our Dance Democracy conference with Dr. Sarah Black-Frizell allowed us to focus on the contribution that contemporary dance makers and academics make in understanding who they are and the impact they have made through their work and research.

Keywords

authenticity, democracy, identity, privilege

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Kritika Kultura
Department of English
School of Humanities
Ateneo de Manila University

The Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) declares Kritika Kultura as a CHED-recognized journal under the Journal Challenge Category of its Journal Incentive Program.

International Board of Editors

Jan Baetens
Professor
Faculty of Arts
Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (Belgium)

Joel David
Professor of Cultural Studies
Inha University (South Korea)

Michael Denning
Professor of American Studies and English
Department of English
Yale University (US)

Faruk
Faculty of Cultural Sciences
Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia)

Regenia Gagnier
Professor of English
University of Exeter (UK)

Leela Gandhi
John Hawkes Professor of the Humanities and English
Brown University (US)

Inderpal Grewal
Professor of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies
Professor of South Asian Studies, Ethnicity, Race and Migration Studies
Yale University (US)

Peter Horn
Professor Emeritus and Honorary Lifetime Fellow
University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Honorary Professor and Research Associate in German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

Anette Horn
Professor of German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

David Lloyd
Distinguished Professor of English
University of California, Riverside (US)

Bienvenido Lumbera
National Artist for Literature
Professor Emeritus
University of the Philippines

Rajeev S. Patke
Director of the Division of Humanities
Professor of Humanities
Yale NUS College (Singapore)

Vicente L. Rafael
Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professor of History
University of Washington (US)

Vaidehi Ramanathan
Department of Linguistics
University of California, Davis (US)

Temario Rivera
Professorial Lecturer
Department of Political Science
University of the Philippines

E. San Juan, Jr.
Philippines Studies Center (US)

Neferti X.M. Tadiar
Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Barnard College (US)
Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Columbia University (US)

Antony Tatlow
Honorary Professor of Drama
Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)