1. Prepared by: Dr. Kay Picart
“An Anthropologist Looks at Ballet as a Form of Ethnic Dance” Joann Kealiinohomoku
Prepared by:
Dr. Kay Picart

2. Thesis Statement
By ethnic dance, anthropologists mean to convey the idea that all forms of dance reflect the cultural traditions within which they developed. Dancers and dance scholars use this term & the related terms ethnologic, primitive & folkdance, differently in a way which reveals their limited knowledge of non-Western dance forms. (533)

3. Aims To discuss how an anthropologist might examine ballet and dance.
To uncover hidden value judgments concerning culture embedded in descriptions of dance.

4. Worshippers-Celestial Church of Christ; Gbongan, Nigeria, 1991

5. Review Question
What evidence does the author use to show that current Western commentaries on “primitive dance” are ethnocentric and erroneous?

6. The Sioux “Ghost Dance”

7. Discussion Questions:
Do you agree with the author that dance criticism/popular culture still enshrines ballet as the highest form of dance?
Do you agree that Western dance criticism still remains paternal & ethnocentric?

8. Review Questions: How does the author define “dance”?
Why is such a definition important to her aims?

9. Review Question:
What are the distinctive features of this definition?

10. Discussion Questions:
Do you agree that the author has successfully set up a “cross cultural” definition that differentiates dance from sports or ritual?
Why or why not?

12. Remarks on Other Theorists
Martin: dance as a universal urge but without a universal form
Sorell: differences due to “race,” “racial memory,” innate memory,” “blood”
Review Question:
How does the author respond to both these critics’ positions?

13. Discussion Question:
Is ballet
a genuinely
universal
dance form?

14. Discussion Question:
What do the aesthetics of ballet reveal about preconceptions concerning beauty in both sexes?

15. Review Question:
What flora
and fauna
are privileged
by ballet?

16. Discussion Questions:
What are the main points of the article?
Do you see any weaknesses in the argument?

17. Concluding Question
What would you say to someone who might accuse the author of being simply “politically correct” and nothing more?