Folklore & Regional

Examines the economic and spatial importance of performance arts in West Africa through a close analysis of the masquerade culture of Calabar, the capital city of Nigeria's Cross River State.Driving into urban Calabar, one is struck by two imposing, monumental rectangular columns, operating not unlike ancient triumphal arches, framing the entrance into Nigeria's capital city of the Cross River State. Relief carvings of Calabar's renowned masking characters adorn the monument. The icons, dramatically captured in choreographic poses, freezing the maskers in time, enshrine masquerade as the city's heritage and past identity. Far from being merely "traditional" and relegated to an earlier time, the Calabar-based masquerades explored in this book demonstrate a contemporary and global context indicative of the changing patterns of city life.While the topic of cultural change is not necessarily new to African art history and cultural studies, few scholars or writers have attempted to understand why African arts so readily change. This book, the first full-length monograph addressing contemporary art in Calabar, explains the fluidity and thriving nature of masquerade by analyzing the ways in which masking is steeped in economic transaction and how street performances have become more public and spatially calculated. By unraveling the urban layers of masquerade arts and their performances, this book shows how so-called traditional culture gains new roles or currencies within a contemporary, city-based context.

On the Eve of May Day, one of the great Celtic feasts, the people, moving in lines, were wont to urge their cattle between two fires that they might be purified and preserved during the coming year. And since nothing dies harder than tradition, it may well be that, long after their significance was forgotten, these ancient ceremonial line-movements developed into the forms of the 'Rinnce Fada' and 'The Hey' still danced in the Ireland of today.For over three centuries after the Tudor wars everything Irish was forbidden, and dancing, like all the other peaceful arts, suffered a decline. Some dances were irretrievably lost, but, largely by the efforts of the Gaelic League, others have been recovered and revived. Step notations and music for several of these, including the famous 'Rinnce Fada', are given here with four coloured plates of costumes.Peadar O'Rafferty, founder of Lambeg Irish Folk Dance Society and for many years instructor to Malone Training School, was a pioneer of the folk-dancing revival in Belfast. His son, Gerald, has frequently acted as adjudicator at Irish musical festivals.

Tanja Walters seems hopelessly in love with her longtime square dance partner Micky Hasloff. The truth is Micky hides his feelings behind banter and war of words.Then the square dancers are hired for a Western. The Spanish actor Manolo Rioja plays the leading role; the star was Tanja’s teenage idol. Now she’s making eyes at him, certain she is as attractive as the groupies he usually surrounds himself with.Micky Hasloff watches with growing anger how she throws herself at Rioja. Eventually he sabotages the shooting. If he gets Tanja away from Rioja this way, he doesn't care that the movie contract could be canceled.Then Micky meets Rioja's heavily pregnant wife and learns that the girls at his side are just paid models. Now he understands the star, for his part, is not interested in Tanja at all.But does that help him? Can Micky overcome his fear of rejection and reveal his feelings to Tanja?Love story in the series "Quick, quick, slow – Lietzensee Dance Club".Each novel in the series can be read as a stand-alone.

In Capoeira, Mobility, and Tourism: Preserving an Afro-Brazilian Tradition in a Globalized World, Sergio González Varela examines the mobility of capoeira leaders and practitioners. He analyzes their motivations and spirituality as well as their ability to reconfigure social practices.

Paperback

How South Asian American women have found expression and power in festival dances and theaterDesi Divas: Political Activism in South Asian American Cultural Performances is the product of five years of field research with progressive activists associated with the School for Indian Languages and Cultures (SILC), South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), the feminist dance collective Post Natyam, and the grassroots feminist political organization South Asian Sisters. Christine L. Garlough explores how traditional cultural forms may be critically appropriated by marginalized groups and used as rhetorical tools to promote deliberation and debate, spur understanding and connection, broaden political engagement, and advance particular social identities. To consider how this might happen in diasporic performance contexts, Garlough weaves together two lines of thinking. One grows from feminist theory and draws upon a core literature concerning the ethics of care. The other comes from rhetoric, philosophy, and political science literature on recognition and acknowledgment. This dual approach is used to reflect upon South Asian American women's performances that address pressing social problems related to gender inequality, immigration rights, ethnic stereotyping, hate crimes, and religious violence.Case study chapters address the relatively unknown history of South Asian American rhetorical performances from the early 1800s to the present. Avant-garde feminist performances by the Post Natyam dance collective appropriate women's folk practices and Hindu goddess figures to make rhetorical claims about hate crimes against South Asian Americans after 9/11. In Yoni ki Bat (a South Asian American version of The Vagina Monologues) a progressive performer transforms aspects of the Mahabharata narrative to address issues of sexual violence. Throughout the volume, Garlough argues that these performers rely on calls for acknowledgment that intertwine calls for justice and care. That is, they embed their testimony in traditional cultural forms to invite interest, reflection, and connection.Christine L. Garlough, Middleton, Wisconsin, is assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in the Department of Gender and Women's Studies, the Folklore Program, and the Center for South Asia.