The ‘society killer’ any artist can easily promote without knowing
Cultural appropriation in the dance industry
The dance industry is a perfect example of an environment where borrowing elements from other cultures is a day-to-day part of choreographers and dancers’ process of inspiration. Most of the times, the fact that this is done without giving any credit to its creators in an unquestionable manner is incredibly problematic, but this is way more complex than just that.
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of elements of one culture in an unacknowledged and/or inappropriate way, by members of another culture that has greater privilege or power. On the other hand, cultural appreciation is the genuine approach to other culture in order to understand, honor, advocate and learn from it. Cultural appreciation is a vital practice in the arts community and it is the artists’ responsibility to be educated about how to differentiate appreciation from appropriation in order to eradicate it. First, cultural appropriation is a very common but neglected ‘society killer’ — a phenomenon that alters the peace in society by inducing hatred. Secondly, cultural exchange is inevitable and can lead to progress if done correctly.
Cultural appropriation is a silently damaging phenomenon we see every day in many niches such as the fashion, dance, entertainment, art and the music industry; it is damaging because it perpetuates stereotypes, encourages ignorance and exploits discriminated groups in society. Evidence of this can be seen in pieces such as La Bayadére, a classical ballet created by French choreographer Marius Petipa, and first staged in St. Petersburg in 1877. Joseph Carman, former dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet and contributor for Dance Magazine, New York Times and Playbill states that this controversial ballet mashes up Hindu temples with Persian-styled costumes, a gold Buddhist idol and even blackface servants in some productions. Consequently, Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, called out the Royal Ballet’s production a “blatant belittling of a rich civilization” and demanded an apology, cites Carman.
Ballet stars like Misty Copeland, the first African-American principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre, denounced the use of blackface in Russian productions of this ballet. In her Instagram post she captions “And this is the reality of the ballet world” — to which many people reacted indignant saying how disrespectful it was to publish these kids faces (as they were minors), that there’s not enough black ballerinas in Russia to play those roles, that they didn’t know the history behind it so it was not their fault, and many other arguments disagreeing with her. To which Copeland responded eventually in another IG post exposing some of these ignorant comments: “I’m tired of giving the oppressors the benefit of the doubt. They need to be exposed, called out, educated and more […] I have silenced myself around “them”, made them feel comfortable and suffered in silence”.
To better understand this example, this ballet relates the drama of a temple dancer, Nikiya, who is loved by Solor, a noble warrior. She is also loved by the High Brahmin, but does not love him in return, as she does Solor. In their attempt to represent this culture, they stereotyped and homogenized South Asian countries’ culture by mixing traditional and religious elements of it — e.g., the High Brahmin’s character would lust after a temple dancer — in comparison, that would be like the pope harassing an abbess, as Carman states. We can also notice cultures’ homogenization in how they mix elements like Hindu temples with Persian harem pants and a gold Buddhist idol in their costume and scenography. Some productions also use blackface. This is a practice where people darken their skin with shoe polish, greasepaint or burnt cork and paint on enlarged lips and other exaggerated features; it has been historically used to denigrate people of African descent. Alexis Carman, in his article for History Channel, explains that the blackface phenomenon peaked in popularity during an era in the United States when demands for civil rights by recently emancipated slaves triggered racial hostility. What we can infer from this example is that not taking the right measurements when trying to represent someone else’s culture and traditions — which is pretty much a huge part of their identity — is no more than a sign of ignorance, self-centeredness and lack of empathy. By misrepresenting and stereotyping this becomes cultural appropriation, not appreciation. This affects minorities that have been struggling for hundreds of years because of simply not taking a step back to analyze what is it that you are trying to represent in a piece and how to do it in the most honorable way for its actual creators, especially if you are going to get some benefit from it. We should acknowledge that every action comes with its responsibility for its consequences.
More of this problematic can be seen in Justin Bieber’s music video “Sorry” that featured New Zealand’s choreographer Parris Goebel. In the viral video, non-black dancers utilize Jamaican dance moves. What this example shows us again, is that, what some may call cultural appreciation, becomes appropriation when the benefits of it are one-sided and it perpetuates harmful and oppressive power dynamic. For this to happen, Jeremy Helliger — journalist, blogger and author of “This is exactly what cultural appropriation means”, published in Reader’s Digest, states that there must be a history of discrimination and marginalization that continues into the present. It is immensely ironic how Black culture — which was censored for centuries by colonizers — is now the “cool trend” white people are profiting from. It is not intelligent to be this self-centered while affecting others in a world that’s already full enough of conflict. Just as Nicki Minaj said in an interview with the New York Times: “Come on, you can’t want the good without the bad. If you want to enjoy our culture and our lifestyle, bond with us, dance with us, have fun with us, twerk with us, rap with us, then you should also want to know what affects us, what is bothering us, what we feel is unfair to us. You shouldn’t not want to know that.” In other words, Nicki Minaj is suggesting that one should not pretend to appreciate Black culture while making profit and consciously remaining ignorant of the racism and marginalization that the Black community experiences. That’s what draws the line between appropriation and appreciation.
For these reasons, others’ cultures should be appreciated rather than appropriated. This would be a great practice as a society, since exchange between cultures is an inevitable and necessary process for human progress. Cultural anthropologist Edward Tylor in his discussion of culture change in 1865 explains us that the word cultural appropriation may be understood in a better way when we see it in the umbrella of ‘cultural diffusion’. This occurs by three mechanisms: direct diffusion — which happens based on geographic proximity, indirect diffusion — which takes place because of an intermediate, such as merchants, and lastly, forced diffusion — which occurs when a dominant group subjugates a weaker group into adopting its culture (e.g., white colonizers forcing Natives to adopt their religion). What makes this example so relevant is that it is implying that cultural exchange will always happen while there is human interaction. I would say that that ‘cultural diffusion’ Tylor is mentioning should be done in a more conscious way, because it has caused enough chaos. These humans interactions are the fuel for progress, through the exchange between human groups of discoveries and knowledge. But it is not just that, it is also about knowing how to enjoy these cultural exchanges in a way that is beneficial for all of us.
“If ballet is constantly changing as an art form, why can’t we change in the direction of being more inclusive? […] We can no longer approach making ballets from the perspective of a single culture and how its members see the world.”
— Phil Chan
A good example true cultural appreciation is how some dance companies made their effort to make amends with the traditional version of La Bayadère. Pallabi Chakravorty, a dance anthropologist and Swarthmore College professor, was enlisted by Pennsylvania Ballet to help contextualise La Bayadère from an Indian perspective. She modified gestures of the temple dancer, Nikiya, that reflected salutations from Islamic and Hindu styles of greeting or worship. She altered the dancers’ gestures to match South Indian culture and told them to use their eyes like kathak dancers. Chakravorty also supported panel talks regarding Orientalism with Philadelphia’s Asian and dance communities. Other companies, like the Royal Danish Ballet, are also taking action in this topic — Nikolaj Hübbe presented a production for the Royal Danish Ballet that shifted the setting to colonial India, replacing Solor and Gamzatti with British nobles and a Blue God (like the Hindu god Shiva) in place of a Golden Idol.
Some may say being too mindful about utilizing others’ cultures elements reinforces group divisions, but a different thing is cherry-picking cultural elements, whether dance moves or print designs, without engaging with their creators or the cultures that gave rise to them. Jenni Avins, reporter at Quartz magazine, states that this not only creates the potential for cultural appropriation; it also misses an opportunity for art to perpetuate real, world-changing progress. This is why we should practice cultural appreciation instead of appropriation. Acknowledging the vitality of learning how to discern between cultural appropriation and appreciation is part of our role as artists and a potential tool to make this world a better place. In the end, just making sure we are an ally of the culture we’re interested in will be a huge first step for the better.
