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Dancing Mestiçagem, Embodying Whiteness: Eros Volúsia's Bailado Brasileiro

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2020

Ana Paula Höfling
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Abstract

This article analyzes the processes of branqueamento (whitening) contained within the ideology of mestiçagem (racial miscegenation) through the work of Brazilian dancer, choreographer, and dance pedagogue Eros Volúsia (1914–2004) in the context of the establishment of the myth of racial democracy in early twentieth-century Brazil. I argue that Eros Volúsia not only embodied Brazil's allegedly harmonious racial mixture through her stylized “folk” dances, but her bailado brasileiro (Brazilian ballet) in fact choreographed Brazil's modernity and aspirations of whiteness. I compare Volúsia's prominent career as a performer and pedagogue in Brazil with her brief film career in the United States, where Volúsia had the opportunity to follow in Carmen Miranda's footsteps and become the next “Brazilian bombshell,” but instead chose to return to Brazil, where she was able to maintain her white privilege and her status as author and artist.

Keywords

authorshipbailado brasileiroballetBrazilfolklorenationalismracial democracyRio RitaEros Volúsiawhiteness
Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , August 2020 , pp. 59 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Dance Studies Association

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