Performing the Greek crisis : navigating national identity in the age of austerity / Natalie Zervou.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zervou, Natalie, author.

Contributor:

Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan), publisher.

Series:

Studies in dance (Dance Studies Association)

Studies in Dance : Theories and practices

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dance--Economic aspects--Greece--21st century.

Dance.

Dance--Political aspects--Greece--21st century.

National characteristics, Greek--21st century.

National characteristics, Greek.

Financial crises--Social aspects--Greece--21st century.

Financial crises.

Greece--Economic conditions--Social aspects--21st century.

Greece.

Greece--Social conditions--21st century.

Physical Description:

xvi, 236 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2024]

Summary:

Performing the Greek Crisis explores the impact of the Greek financial crisis (2009-19) on the performing arts sector in Greece, and especially on contemporary concert dance. When Greece became the first European Union member to be threatened with default, the resulting budget cuts pushed dance to develop in unprecedented directions. The book examines the repercussions that the crisis had on artists' daily lives and experience, weaving the personal with the political to humanize a phenomenon that to date had been examined chiefly through economic and statistical lenses. Informed by her own experience of growing up in Greece and including interviews and rich descriptions of performances, Natalie Zervou offers a glimpse into a pivotal moment in Greek history. In Greece, dance (and in extension, the body) has historically held a central role in the process of national identity construction. When the crisis broke out, artists had to navigate their way through a precariously fluctuating landscape, with their bodies as their one and only stable referent. In Greece, dance has held a historical role in national identity construction of Greece as the cradle of Western civilization. As the financial crisis coincided with the European Refugee Crisis, dancing bodies became agents to advocate for human rights. By centering the analysis of the Greek crisis on the dancing bodies, Performing the Greek Crisis is able to examine the various ways that artists reconceptualized their history and reframed ideas of national belonging, race, citizenship, and immigration.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-219) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Zervou, Natalie. Performing the Greek crisis

ISBN:

9780472076758

0472076752

9780472056750

0472056751

OCLC:

1394893689