Join us for our next Chew On This
Tuesday May 29 at 12pm
Kaufman Hall Conference Room 160
Feriyal Aslam presents
Choreographing Inclusivity in Pakistan:
The Tree, the Dancer, and the City
In this presentation Feriyal introduces a section of her PhD dissertation project, centered on life
and choreographies of Indu Mitha which provide the foci to probe broader questions of the place
of the outliers, i.e. Muslims in India, and non-Muslims and “non-Pakistanis” in Pakistan (Post
1971), in the aftermath of the 1947 Partition of India. Indu’s choreography Islamabad qa muqaddas
daraxht (The Sacred Tree of Islamabad) facilitates the author on a journey to occluded parts of her
hometown Islamabad, to its rich Buddhist and pluralistic histories in sharp contrast with the twenty-
first-century tragic fate of Islamabad’s historical Bodhi tree. The dancing bodies of Indu’s male
students also from a marginalized Christian community provide another contrast to founding father
Jinnah’s vision for an inclusive Pakistan. The dancer and her tactics, the tree, the city of Islamabad
and its occluded histories serve as call to promote inclusivity in Pakistan, bring forth voices of
the underrepresented in Pakistani society today namely: non-Muslim communities in Pakistan,
underrepresented Muslims, and occluded Islamic values such as muhabbat, amen, ravadarie (love, peace, and good behavior).
Bio: Feriyal Amal Aslam is a Ph.D candidate at Department of World Arts and Cultures at the
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), commencing her dissertation this quarter. A
Fulbright (2004-2009) and East-West Center (2005-2006) alumni, currently a Teaching Fellow for
a unique Urdu-Hindi program at the Asian Languages and Cultures Department at UCLA. Trained
as social and cultural anthropologist with an MA from the University of Hawaii (UH) and an MSc
from Quaid-e-Azam University, Pakistan, her first dissertation traced the genealogical and cultural
history of the Rubabis, a clan of Muslim performers in Sikh Gurdwaras for generations, who reside in
present day Lahore. Her present project in occluded, contested histories is taking her towards soft-
ball diplomacy approach using aesthetic and performative practices, people to people diplomacy
towards better solutions to peaceful relations between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
5.22 - Alison D'Amato
Please join us at our next Chew on This.
ALISON D'AMATO
Bodies Under the Influence: Anne Bass, Sy Sar, and the Politics of PatronageDescription:
Tuesday, May 22
12pm
Kaufman Conference room 160
This
paper interrogates the role of individual patronage in choreographic
production, focusing on the extent to which such support exerts a
profound influence on the dancing body. It is grounded in a close
analysis of the relationship between patron Anne Bass and dancer
Sokvannara “Sy” Sar as represented in Bass's 2010 documentary, “Dancing
Across Borders.” By deconstructing the documentary's themes of
discovery, rescue, and elite cultural authority, this analysis lends a
particular urgency to questions that dance studies scholars can and
should pose more widely – namely, what dances are being made, for whom,
and with what resources.
Alison D'Amato is pursuing a PhD in UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, where her work focuses on scoring and notational practices. She holds an MA in European Dance Theater Practice from Laban and a BA in Philosophy from Haverford College. As a choreographer and performer, Alison's work has been presented in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, England, and Poland. Her writing on performance can be found in Choreographic Practices, itch, and Native Strategies.
Alison D'Amato is pursuing a PhD in UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, where her work focuses on scoring and notational practices. She holds an MA in European Dance Theater Practice from Laban and a BA in Philosophy from Haverford College. As a choreographer and performer, Alison's work has been presented in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, England, and Poland. Her writing on performance can be found in Choreographic Practices, itch, and Native Strategies.
5.15 - Ana Paula Hofling
Please join us for our next Chew on This
Ana Paula Höfling
Ana Paula Höfling
Tuesday, May 15 at 12pm
Kaufman Conference room, 160
Choreographing
Afro-Brazilian modernity through capoeiraKaufman Conference room, 160
In the mid 1930s, capoeira was
codified and divided into two opposing styles. The style known as capoeira
regional embodied order, progress and modernity during a time when Brazil
was reinventing itself as a modern nation. Capoeira angola,
initially called capoeira de Angola
(from Angola), was conceptualized as the “original” capoeira, where African
traditions “survived” in spite of progress. Capoeira
regional has been interpreted as a loss of “character,” i.e., loss of
capoeira’s African “roots.” I
argue that this perceived loss actually fueled the invention of traditions that
gave rise to capoeira de Angola—a capoeira
from Angola that was just as
Brazilian and as modern as capoeira regional. My analysis focuses on how
capoeira’s modernity and tradition were invented at the movement level—what
movements were reimagined, recycled, or discarded.
Monday, May 7, 2012
5.8.12 - Alessandra Williams!
5/8/12: CHEW ON THIS
TUESDAY AT 12PM
KAUFMAN STUDIO 208
Alessandra Williams!
AN EXPLORATION OF LAND, NARRATIVE AND PERFORMANCE!
This presentation is the performance produc@on for Alessandra Williams’s Master’s thesis work. In this 25‐minute solo piece, Williams uses theatre, song, spoken word, and dance to explore how narrative helps to exemplify an important context of land politics in the twentieth century. Additionally, she uses written text to accomplish two things: first, to position a former black woman sharecropper’s
memory of land dispossession within economic theory and debate; second, to examine how this specific narrative reveals the role property ownership played in historical events of lynching or vigilante violence. Williams concludes by positing that the performance of this narrative might radically transform our understandings of the links between racism and capitalism in the US.
Alessandra Williams is in her second‐year as a Culture and Performance PhD student at UCLA. Through an interdisciplinary approach, her research explores land, narrative, gender and performance. She received her Bachelor’s in American Studies and Dance at Macalester College. Originally from Minneapolis, her community organizing work earned her the Grassroots Solutions Organizer of the Year Award and she remains committed to bridging the worlds of academe, art, and community.
TUESDAY AT 12PM
KAUFMAN STUDIO 208
Alessandra Williams!
AN EXPLORATION OF LAND, NARRATIVE AND PERFORMANCE!
This presentation is the performance produc@on for Alessandra Williams’s Master’s thesis work. In this 25‐minute solo piece, Williams uses theatre, song, spoken word, and dance to explore how narrative helps to exemplify an important context of land politics in the twentieth century. Additionally, she uses written text to accomplish two things: first, to position a former black woman sharecropper’s
memory of land dispossession within economic theory and debate; second, to examine how this specific narrative reveals the role property ownership played in historical events of lynching or vigilante violence. Williams concludes by positing that the performance of this narrative might radically transform our understandings of the links between racism and capitalism in the US.
Alessandra Williams is in her second‐year as a Culture and Performance PhD student at UCLA. Through an interdisciplinary approach, her research explores land, narrative, gender and performance. She received her Bachelor’s in American Studies and Dance at Macalester College. Originally from Minneapolis, her community organizing work earned her the Grassroots Solutions Organizer of the Year Award and she remains committed to bridging the worlds of academe, art, and community.
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