Kinesthetic peoplehood : Jewish diasporic dance migrations / Hannah Kosstrin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kosstrin, Hannah, author.

Series:

Oxford studies in dance theory

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dance--Social aspects.

Dance.

Dance--Religious aspects--Judaism.

Jewish dance.

Jewish diaspora.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2026]

Summary:

'Kinesthetic Peoplehood' explores how people experience diaspora not only through geography or shared histories of exile and displacement, but also through the body itself. Drawing upon extensive archival materials, interviews, and ethnographic research, this book demonstrates how dance embodies the cultural migrations at the heart of Jewish experience. Focusing on the circulation of Jewish diasporic cultural production across Israel and the United States between the Cold War and Covid, this book illuminates how American Jewish audiences connected with Israel through performances and classes with Israeli choreographers who immigrated to or toured through the United States. Through their performances, these choreographers offered audiences diverse perspectives on global Jewish cultures.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Series

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Contents

Figures

Tables

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

A Note on Terminology

Introduction: Kinesthetic Peoplehood

Can diaspora live in the body?

Jewish Peoplehood and Its Discontents: Antiquity, Modernity, and Diasporic Imaginaries

Jewish Diasporic Dance Migrations: Corporeal Diasporism as Challenge to Exile

Decentering Ashkenaz

Methods for Analyzing Jewish Diasporic Dance

Chapter Summaries

1 Inbal Dance Theater: Jewish Spectatorship and Cold War Modernism

Mobilizing Antiquity Means Toward Peoplehood Ends

Choreographing the Fantasy: Inbal's Stylistic Mix of Diasporic Theatrics

US Reception of Inbal Across Diasporic Communities

So Close and Yet So Far: Distant Kinesthetic Peoplehood Identifying and De-Identifying Jews

Aesthetic Transcendence and Christian Imaginings of Jews

Conclusion: Implications of Inbal's Migrations and Their Afterlives

2 Migrations of South Asian Gestures: Margalit Oved, Barak Marshall, and the Translocality of Jewish Dance

Dance Circulations and Jewish Migrations: Adenite Gestures, Adeni Jewish Histories

Filigree Fingers, Doves, and Biblical Women: Translocal Politics in Margalit Oved's Work

"The Hottest Place in the World": Oved's Gendered Activism

Embodying Aden: Peoplehood Encounters in Master Classes

Another "Hottest Place in the World": US Critics Suppressing Mizrahi Women's Histories

Return Migration: American Aesthetics in Oved's Directing of Inbal

Barak Marshall's Intradiasporic Jewish Imaginary

Translocal Mizrahi Feminist Kinesthetics

Conclusion

3 Ze'eva Cohen: Dancing Mizrahi Feminist Postmodernism

Diaspora, Race, and Place

Reconnecting Yemeni Jewish Women's Histories in Mothers of Israel

Dancing Downtown: Diasporic Circulations between Israel and the United States

Feminist Corporeal Diasporism: Dances About Migration and Ecology

Diasporic Mothers: The Politics of Feminist Mobilization

Conclusion

4 Queer Israeli Diasporic Migrations: Politics, Pleasure, and Belonging Through the Body

Queer Israeli Nationalism and Its Diasporic Circulations

Ma(r)king Queer Spaces

Home Is a Queer Place

5 Dually Diasporic Dancing: Jewish and African Diasporic Dance in the Work of Dege Feder, Beta Dance Company, and Eskesta Dance Theatre

Dually Diasporic

Claiming Women's Space Through Bodily Migrations

Eskesta Dance Theatre's US Tours: Mobilizing Dually Diasporic Peoplehood

Corporeally Establishing the Ethiopian Contemporary

Conclusion: Coming Home to the Body

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (Oxford Academic, viewed on July 1, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version : Kosstrin, Hannah. Kinesthetic peoplehood.

ISBN:

9780197696835

019769683X

OCLC:

1574213798

Publisher Number:

CIPO000355246

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license