ABSTRACT

The Afro-Latin dance known as ‘salsa’ is a fusion of multiple dances from West Africa, Muslim Spain, enslaved communities in the Caribbean, and the United States. In part due to its global origins, salsa was pivotal in the development of the Figuration philosophy of dance, and for ‘dancing-with,’ the theoretical method for social justice derived therefrom. In the present article, I apply the completed theory Figuration exclusively to salsa for the first time, after situating the latter in the dance studies literature. My first section explores Juliet McMains’ recent history, Spinning Mambo into Salsa, with an emphasis on the dynamics of class, race and sex therein. My second section explores a resonant Afro-Latin dance history, Marta E. Savigliano’s Tango and the Political Economy of Passion, where she deploys salsa’s sister-dance (tango) as a ‘counter-choreography’ to the choreography of postmodern neocolonialism. And my third section applies Figuration’s four central aspects of dance (or ‘Moves’) to salsa qua member of its ‘societal’ family of dance. In conclusion, through partnering with salsa, Figuration emerges as a member of its own ‘discursive’ family of dance, while salsa emerges as a gestural discourse capable of helping reconstruct a more socially-just world from the postmodern ruins of today.

摘要

非洲拉丁舞被称为“萨尔萨舞”，它融合了西非，西班牙穆斯林，加勒比地区的奴役社区和美国的多种舞蹈。萨尔萨舞部分地归因于其全球起源，在发展舞蹈形象化哲学以及从中衍生出的社会正义的理论方法“与之共舞”方面起着举足轻重的作用。在本文中，我将完整的理论比喻首次应用到莎莎舞中，这是莎莎舞在舞蹈研究文献中提出的。我的第一部分探讨朱丽叶·麦克梅恩斯（Juliet McMains）的近期历史，《把曼波舞进萨尔萨舞（Salsa）》，重点介绍其中的阶级，种族和性别的动态变化。我的第二部分探讨非洲-拉丁舞蹈的共鸣历史，玛塔·萨维利亚诺（Marta E. Savigliano）的探戈舞和激情的政治经济学，她将莎莎的姊妹舞蹈（探戈）部署为后现代新殖民主义舞蹈的“反舞蹈”。在我的第三部分中，将“塑像”舞蹈的四个主要方面（或“运动”）应用于“社会”舞蹈家族的萨尔萨舞成员。总之，通过与莎莎舞的合作，塑像成为了自己的“ disdissive”舞蹈家族的一员，而莎莎舞则是一种能够帮助从当今的后现代废墟中重建更具社会公正性的世界的手势话语。