Dancing with settlers: Kate Mattingly, ‘Native American Dancing beyond Settler Colonial Confines’, in Kate Mattingly, Iyun Ashani Harrison (eds), Antiracism in Ballet Teaching, Routledge, 2023
Abstract: Rather than focus on how ballet can be more “inclusive,” this chapter takes a broader view of dance education and its complicity with settler colonialism. While scholars have brought attention to cultural appropriation in ballet, less prominence has been given to the erasure of Native artistry and peoples, and ballet’s imbrications with racial-settler capitalism. Beginning with a description of a recent collaboration among photographer Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), dancer Crickett Tiger (Muscogee Creek/Cochiti), and artist Leah Mata-Fragua (Northern Chumash), the chapter foregrounds Native artists who influence definitions of “American” ballet, historically and currently. Focusing on the significance of responsibility and reciprocity, this chapter draws on scholarship by Tria Blu Wakpa (Filipina, European, and tribally-unenrolled Native ancestries) to amplify Indigenous sovereignty and epistemologies, and to highlight their vital importance in generating equitable and sustainable learning environments for students, artists, and educators.
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