Infinite repertoire : on dance and urban possibility in postsocialist Guinea / Adrienne J. Cohen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cohen, Adrienne J., author.

Series:

Chicago scholarship online.

Chicago scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dance--Social aspects--Guinea--Conakry.

Dance.

Dance--Political aspects--Guinea--Conakry.

Socialism and dance--Guinea--Conakry.

Socialism and dance.

Conakry (Guinea)--Social life and customs.

Conakry (Guinea).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (216 p.) : 42 halftones, 2 maps, 2 line drawings

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2021.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In Guinea's capital city of Conakry, dance is everywhere. Most neighborhoods boast at least one dance troupe, & members of those troupes animate the city's major rites of passage & social events. Guinea's socialist state (1958-84) used staged African dance or 'ballet' strategically as a political tool, in part by tapping into indigenous conceptualizations of artisans as powerful figures capable of transforming the social fabric through their manipulation of vital energy. Far from dying with the socialist revolution, Guinean ballet continued to thrive in Conakry after economic liberalization in the 1980s, with its connection to transformative power retrofitted for a market economy & a rapidly expanding city. 'Infinite Repertoire' follows young dancers & percussionists in Conakry as they invest in the present, using their bodies to build a creative urban environment & to perform & redefine social norms.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Notes on Orthography and Transcription

Preface: Name-Finding

Invitation: City of Dance

Part I. Aesthetic Politics, Magical Resources

Introduction

1 Why Authority Needs Magic

2 Privatizing Ballet

3 The Discipline of Becoming: Ballet’s Pedagogy

Part II. Delicious Inventions

4 Female Strong Men and the Future of Resemblance

5 Core Steps and Passport Moves: How to Inherit a Repertoire

6 When Big Is Not Big Enough: On Excess in Guinean Sabar

Epilogue: Embodied Infrastructure and Generative Imperfection

Acknowledgments

Addendum: Artists in the Diaspora

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Also issued in print: 2021.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on December 7, 2021).

ISBN:

9780226781167

022678116X

OCLC:

1255228779