Monday, October 31, 2011
November 8 - Jose Reynoso: Embodiments of Class and the Folk in Eliticizing the Popular and Contructing the Modern; Anna Pavlova in Mexico City (1919)
Jose Reynoso
Embodiments of Class and the Folk in Eliticizing the Popular and constructing the modern: Anna Pavlova in Mexico City (1919)
12pm Kaufman room 160
Nine years after the start of the armed Mexican revolution, Anna Pavlova visited Mexico
City in 1919 already established as a universalized referent of high culture. While engaging in processes of selective re-choreographing through which “low brow” cultural practices are “elevated” to the realm of high art, Pavlova revolutionized concert dance in Mexico City by dancing a popular Mexican folk dance. As a dancing swan representative
of the presumably universal human spirit, Pavlova danced el Jarabe Tapatio on pointe
dressed as a Mexican china poblana. This confluence of the “universal” and the local in
the same body –a body endowed with “artistic genius”- represented the embodiment of
the conundrum that elites in primarily non-white, third-world countries confront as they
engaged in an endless quest to catch up with modernity –technological and scientific- as
they also construct a local identity while trying to gain universal appeal to and resonance
with the civilized first-world. In this paper I will show how Pavlova’s performances of
her Europeanized ballet repertoire and of her “refined” Jarabe Tapatio produced a social
space, a homotopic space, in which a class of similars among Mexican elites re-affirmed
their identities as cultured, civilized moderns –distinctively Mexican, yet with universal
appeal.
Jose Luis Reynoso holds a B.A. (Magna Cum Laude) and a M.A. both in Psychology
from California State University Los Angeles and a M.F.A. in Choreography from
UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures / Dance where he is currently a Ph.D.
candidate in Culture and Performance Studies. As a choreographer and performer,
Jose has collaborated with performance art and dance artists and his own academic and
choreographic work has been presented nationally and internationally.
12pm Kaufman room 160
Nine years after the start of the armed Mexican revolution, Anna Pavlova visited Mexico
City in 1919 already established as a universalized referent of high culture. While engaging in processes of selective re-choreographing through which “low brow” cultural practices are “elevated” to the realm of high art, Pavlova revolutionized concert dance in Mexico City by dancing a popular Mexican folk dance. As a dancing swan representative
of the presumably universal human spirit, Pavlova danced el Jarabe Tapatio on pointe
dressed as a Mexican china poblana. This confluence of the “universal” and the local in
the same body –a body endowed with “artistic genius”- represented the embodiment of
the conundrum that elites in primarily non-white, third-world countries confront as they
engaged in an endless quest to catch up with modernity –technological and scientific- as
they also construct a local identity while trying to gain universal appeal to and resonance
with the civilized first-world. In this paper I will show how Pavlova’s performances of
her Europeanized ballet repertoire and of her “refined” Jarabe Tapatio produced a social
space, a homotopic space, in which a class of similars among Mexican elites re-affirmed
their identities as cultured, civilized moderns –distinctively Mexican, yet with universal
appeal.
Jose Luis Reynoso holds a B.A. (Magna Cum Laude) and a M.A. both in Psychology
from California State University Los Angeles and a M.F.A. in Choreography from
UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures / Dance where he is currently a Ph.D.
candidate in Culture and Performance Studies. As a choreographer and performer,
Jose has collaborated with performance art and dance artists and his own academic and
choreographic work has been presented nationally and internationally.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
10.11.11 - Parthiv Shah: Art as Witness
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
Parthiv Shah: Art as Witness
Kaufman Room 160 at 12 noon
Reception to follow in the Rainbow Lounge
Center for Media and Alternative Communication's (CMAC) role has been to create an interface
between artists from different genres, to facilitate and to provide a platform for production, cultural
exchange of art and ideas, and dialogue in the visual and performing arts. A key objective of the
organization is conceptualizing and implementing specially designed productions mounted on
excellent technological skills. Over nearly a decade the organization has developed projects and
campaigns through different art practices such as new media design, performance, video, public and
community based art and dialogue, sound and other experimental modes of cultural production.
Parthiv Shah will be presenting works in the field of culture, design and media created at the CMAC.
Parthiv Shah is a Fulbright Scholar visiting UCLA from his home in New Delhi, India, where he
serves as the founder-director of the Centre for Media and Alternative Communication. Prof.
Shah is a photographer, filmmaker, and graphic designer. He has made several documentary films,
curated exhibitions, and has several photo-books to his credit, including books on street children
and transgenders in India. He has taught about photography and design in India and beyond,
including at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Growing up in a family of artists and through his own professional training, he brings an interesting intersection of art,
photography and design to his work.
Lately Prof. Shah has been particularly interested and engaged in working on the issue of
image perception and representation. His visual journeys have lead him into working with
communities which are finding a mainstream voice. Parthiv loves traveling, cooking food,
listening to music and flying kites.
Fall Quarter CHEW ON THIS LINE-UP announced
Please join us for the fall quarter series.
More information on each speaker to come!
Tuesdays, 12p-1p
Conference room Kaufman 160
October 11
Parthiv Shah, Fulbright Scholar and Visiting lecturer**
"Art as Witness"
**in Room 208, reception to follow in the Rainbow Lounge
November 1
Dana Marterella
November 8
Jose Reynoso
November 15
Doran George
November 29
Olive McKeon
"Dance and its Negation: On Konzept Tanz and its Discontents"
More information on each speaker to come!
Tuesdays, 12p-1p
Conference room Kaufman 160
October 11
Parthiv Shah, Fulbright Scholar and Visiting lecturer**
"Art as Witness"
**in Room 208, reception to follow in the Rainbow Lounge
November 1
Dana Marterella
November 8
Jose Reynoso
November 15
Doran George
November 29
Olive McKeon
"Dance and its Negation: On Konzept Tanz and its Discontents"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)