ABSTRACT

This article explores stage and celluloid representations of the dancing baiana archetype by black women performers, focusing on the period 1920 to 1945. The Portuguese term baiana translates as “woman from the state of Bahia,” and refers to Afro-descendent women street vendors in Salvador de Bahia, the state capital. This archetype was embodied by: Etta Moten and her troupe of baianas in the Hollywood film Flying Down to Rio (1933); Josephine Baker at the Urca Casino, Rio de Janeiro in 1939; and Katherine Dunham in her US solo staged performance “Bahiana” (1940, 1944–1945), and in the Warner Brothers film Carnival of Rhythm (1941). Using a transatlantic and interhemispheric approach, I argue that these performers connected, shared, and interacted with one another, incorporating transnational elements into their repertoires in order to articulate different, oftentimes contradictory, takes on modern black, female subjectivity through the baiana figure.

摘要

本文探讨了黑人女性表演者对舞蹈百纳舞原型的舞台和赛璐oid表现形式，重点是1920年至1945年。葡萄牙语中的“百纳舞”一词翻译为“来自巴伊亚州的女性”，是指非洲裔女性街头小贩州首府萨尔瓦多·德·巴伊亚（Salvador de Bahia）。这种原型体现在：埃塔·莫滕（Etta Moten）和她的拜亚那舞团在好莱坞电影《飞向里约（Fly Down Down to Rio）（1933）》中；1939年，约瑟芬·贝克（Josephine Baker）在里约热内卢的Urca赌场；和凯瑟琳·邓纳姆（Katherine Dunham）在她的美国独奏音乐会上演出的表演“巴伊亚娜（Bahiana）”（1940，1944-1945），以及在华纳兄弟的电影《狂欢节》中（1941）。我认为，通过跨大西洋和跨半球的方法，这些表演者可以相互联系，共享和互动，将跨国元素融入他们的曲目中，以表达出不同的，常常是相互矛盾的东西，并通过拜亚那形象呈现出现代的黑人女性主观性。