The article deals with the issue of representing Greek traditional dances, approached both through their visualized stage performance by organized groups of dancers and the relevant literature describing the dances of a certain region. The analysis of a dance event and the examination of texts referring to the dances of the Florina region enhance the limitations and problems resulting from the understanding of social reality. The article pinpoints the need of Ethnography as a means of producing knowledge about dance and pro¬poses the adoption of such an approach to civilization, so that the polymorphism of cultural phenomena could be promoted. The in situ research of dance can locate the diversity and complexity of concepts prevailing among the individuals-members of a local community, as well as the different modes of their kinetic representation. The subjectivity of the ethnographical knowledge, and consequently the departure from the idea that a scholar can have an authentic opinion about dance, and the need for a continuous rejudgement of the relevant research are determinative parameters for the production of reliable knowledge about dance and for the understanding of a community through dance.
Dance and Re-presentations. The Boundaries and the Need of Ethnography
28 Aug 2012
by Archaeology Newsroom
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