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Cautionary Contours: Joann Kealiinohomoku's Silhougraphs® and Dance Analysis in Black and White

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2021

Judith Hamera
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Abstract

Joann Kealiinohomoku's Silhougraphs®, traces of the silhouettes of dancers, were her attempt to operationalize her cultural relativist commitments and create a new method of dance analysis. Silhougraphs illuminate underexamined scholarly presumptions, methods, and tools that both contributed to and paralleled the emergence of dance studies as a discipline. Silhougraphs are also a cautionary tale demonstrating the ways culturally sensitive research commitments and methods can unintentionally yet decisively reiterate tools and logics of racist typologies.

Keywords

cultural relativismMelville HerskovitsJoann KealiinohomokusilhouetteSilhougraphs®
Type
Article
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , April 2021 , pp. 23 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Dance Studies Association

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