Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T04:22:00.292Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dancing to Transgress: Palestinian Dancer Sahar Damoni's Politics of Pleasure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2022

Hodel Ophir Open the ORCID record for Hodel Ophir [Opens in a new window]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As a woman Palestinian dancer and choreographer in Israel, Sahar Damoni performs within multiple contexts of cultural, gendered, and political oppression, employing her bodily art to challenge these structures, most poignantly through dances that express and evoke pleasure and sensual joy. Offering a detailed ethnography of three of Damoni's performances within one year in Israel/Palestine, I argue that an examination of her artistry provides unique insight into the intricate workings—and transgressions—of gender, ethnic, and national boundaries through the movement of the body in dance.

Keywords

Arab contemporary choreographerdance anthropologyfeminist theoryIsraelPalestinian dancerpolitics of pleasureSahar Damonisubaltern women
Type
Article
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 53 , Issue 3 , December 2021 , pp. 25 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Dance Studies Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1990. “The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power through Bedouin Women.” American Ethnologist 17 (1): 41–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abu Oksa Daoud, Suheir. 2012. “Palestinian Working Women in Israel: National Oppression and Social Restraints.” Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 8 (2): 78–101.Google Scholar
Accad, Evelyne. 2005. “Sexuality and Sexual Politics: Conflicts and Contradictions for Contemporary Women in the Middle East.” In Women and Islam: Critical Concepts in Sociology, edited by Moghissi, Haideh, 3–16. Vol. 2. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ankori, Gannit. 2006. “Re-visioning Faith: Christian and Muslim Allusions in Recent Palestinian Art.” Third Text 20 (3-4): 379–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anzaldúa, Gloria. 1987. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 2005. The Promise of Politics. New York: Schocken Books.Google Scholar
Azaiza, Faisal, Khawla Abu-Baker, Rachel Hertz-Lazarowitz, and Ghanem, As'ad. 2009. “Mavo.” In Nashim Araviot be'Yisrael – tmunat matsav u'mabat le'atid, edited by Azaiza, Faisal, Abu-Baker, Khawla, Hertz-Lazarowitz, Rachel, and Ghanem, As'ad, 5–16. Tel-Aviv: Ramot.Google Scholar
Bahoora, Haytham. 2015. “The Figure of the Prostitute, Tajdid, and Masculinity in Anticolonial Literature of Iraq.” Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 11 (1): 42–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1984. Rabelais and His World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Barakat, Ebtesam. 2018. “Estrategiot shel ma'avak migdari shel nashim Druziot be'Yisrael.” Ha'mizrah Ha'hadash 57:175–196.Google Scholar
Bartky, Sandra Lee. 1988. “Foucault, Femininity and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power.” In Feminism and Foucault: Reflections on Resistance, edited by Diamond, Irene and Quinby, Lee, 63–86. Boston: Northeastern University Press.Google Scholar
Behar, Ruth. 1993. “Introduction: Women Writing Culture: Another Telling of the Story of American Anthropology.” Critique of Anthropology 13 (4): 307–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benyoussef, Lamia. 2016. “Gender and the Fractured Mythscapes of National Identity in Revolutionary Tunisia.” In Freedom without Permission: Bodies and Space in the Arab Revolutions, edited by Hasso, Frances S. and Salime, Zakia, 51–79. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben Zvi, Tal. 1998. Falastin(a): Palestinian Women's Art. Ami Steinitz Gallery of Contemporary Art Tel Aviv and Al-Wasati Arts Center, East Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Ben Zvi, Tal. 2001. Self Portrait: Palestinian Women's Art. Tel Aviv: Andalus Publishing.Google Scholar
Ben Zvi, Tal. 2006. Hagar: Contemporary Palestinian Art. Kal Press, Hagar Gallery, Jaffa. Exhibition catalog. http://www.hagar-gallery.com/Catalogues/docs/PArt_eng_final.pdf.Google Scholar
Berkovitch, Nitza. 1997. “Motherhood as a National Mission: The Construction of Womanhood in the Legal Discourse in Israel.” Women's Studies International Forum 20 (5-6): 605–519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croft, Clare, ed. 2017. Introduction to Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings, 1–36. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dee Das, Joanna. 2017. Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dekel, Tal. 2015. “Subversive Uses of Perception: The Case of Palestinian Artist Anisa Ashkar.” Signs 40 (2): 300–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donath, Orna. 2015. “Regretting Motherhood: A Sociopolitical Analysis.” Signs 40 (2): 343–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eileraas, Karina. 2016. “Revolution Undressed: The Politics of Rage and Aesthetic Activism of Aliaa Elmahdy's Activism.” In Freedom without Permission: Bodies and Space in the Arab Revolutions, edited by Hasso, Frances S. and Salime, Zakia, 198–220. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
El Saadawi, Nawal. 2015. The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World. London: Zed Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erdreich, Loren. 2010. “Netivei ha'shiva: nashim Falastiniot be'Yisrael Aharei ha'universita.” In Nashim Falastiniot be'Yisrael: zehut, yahasei koah ve'hitmodedut, edited by Abu-RabiaQueder, Sarab and Weiner-Levy, Naomi, 124–147. Jerusalem: Van Leer and Hakibbutz Hameuchad.Google Scholar
Erdreich, Loren, and Rapoport, Tamar. 2006. “Reading the Power of Spaces: Palestinian Israeli Woman at the Hebrew University.” City & Society 18 (1): 116–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, Susan Leigh, ed. 1995. “Choreographing History.” In Choreographing History, 3–24. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1988. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Gӧkariksel, Banu. 2016. “Intimate Politics of Protest: Gendering Embodiments and Redefining Spaces in Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park.” In Freedom without Permission: Bodies and Space in the Arab Revolutions, edited by Hasso, Frances S. and Salime, Zakia, 221–257. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golden, Deborah. 2003. “A National Cautionary Tale: Russian Women Newcomers to Israel Portrayed.” Nations and Nationalism 9 (1): 83–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hackl, Andreas. 2020. “The Good Arab: Conditional Inclusion and Settler Colonial Citizenship among Palestinian Citizens of Israel in Jewish Tel Aviv.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 26 (3): 594–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamdan, Masuod. 2007. “Teatron phalastini bemedina yehudit: tsiyunei derecho 1967-2006. Zmanim 99: 54–62.Google Scholar
Harari, Dror. 2014. Mofa ha'atsmi: performance art veyitsug ha'atsmi. Tel Aviv: Resling.Google Scholar
Hasso, Frances S., and Salime, Zakia, eds. 2016. Introduction to Freedom without Permission: Bodies and Space in the Arab Revolutions, 1–24. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
hooks, bell. 1992. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press.Google Scholar
Jamal, Amal. 2007. “Nationalizing States and the Constitution of ‘Hollow Citizenship’: Israel and Its Palestinian Citizens.” Ethnopolitics 6 (4): 471–493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jamal, Amal. 2017. Ha'hevra ha'ezrahit ha'Arvit be'Yisrael: elitot hadashot, hon hevrati ve'toda’ah opozitsyonit. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad.Google Scholar
Johnson, Jasmin Elizabeth. 2020. “Flesh Dance: Black Women from Behind.” In Futures of Dance Studies, edited by Manning, Susan, Ross, Janice, and Schneider, Rebecca, 154–169. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kanaaneh, Rhoda Ann. 2002. Birthing the Nation: Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Karkabi, Nadeem. 2020. “Self-Liberated Citizens: Unproductive Pleasures, Loss of Self, and Playful Subjectivities in Palestinian Raves.” Anthropological Quarterly 93 (4): 679–708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khalili, Laleh. 2016. “The Politics of Pleasure: Promenading on the Corniche and Beachgoing.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 34 (4): 583–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohavi, Tal. 2007. “Bein rikud le'antropologia [Between dance and anthropology].” PhD thesis, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Kotef, Hagar. 2015. Movement and the Ordering of Freedom: On Liberal Governance of Mobility. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Krumer-Nevo, Michal. 2009. "From Voice to Knowledge: Participatory Action Research, Inclusive Debate and Feminism." International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 22 (3): 279–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemish, Dafna. 2000. “The Whore and the Other: Israeli Images of Female Immigrants from the Former USSR.” Gender & Society 14 (2): 333–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lepecki, André. 2006. Exhausting Dance: Performance and the Politics of Movement. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lepecki, André. 2013. “Choreopolice and Choreopolitics or, the Task of the Dancer.” TDR: The Drama Review 54 (4): 13–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lorde, Audre. 1984. “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power.” In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, 53–59. Berkeley, CA: The Crossing Press.Google Scholar
Mansour, Johnny. 2012. Arab Christian Palestinians in Israel: Figures and Trends. Bethlehem, PS: Diyar Publisher.Google Scholar
Martin, Rosemary. 2013. “Pushing Boundaries: Reflections on Teaching and Learning Contemporary Dance in Amman.” Journal of Dance Education 13:37–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Rosemary. 2016. Women, Dance and Revolution: Performance and Protest in the Southern Mediterranean. London: I.B Tauris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masarwah Srour, Afnan. 2017. Neshot ha'misgad: lemida hatranit shel yeda dati. Tel Aviv: Resling.Google Scholar
Massad, Joseph. 1995. “Conceiving the Masculine: Gender and Palestinian Nationalism.” The Middle East Journal 49 (3): 467–483.Google Scholar
McCoy-Torres, Sabia. 2017. “Love Dem Bad: Embodied Experience, Self-Adoration, and Eroticism in Dancehall.” Transforming Anthropology 25 (2): 185–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKenzie, Jon. 1998. “Genre Trouble: (The) Butler Did It.” In The Ends of Performance, edited by Phelan, Peggy and Lane, Jill, 217–235. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Medina, Jameelah. 2014. “This Battlefield Called My Body: Warring over the Muslim Female.” Religions 5 (3): 876–885.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, Dana. 2017. Dance and Politics: Moving Beyond Boundaries. Manchester: Manchester University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monroe, Raquel L. 2017. “Oh No! Not This Lesbian Again! The Punany Poets Queer the Pimp-Ho Aesthetics.” In Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings, edited by Croft, Clare, 243–262. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mourad, Sara. 2014. “The Naked Body of Alia: Gender, Citizenship, and the Egyptian Body Politic.” Journal of Communication Inquiry 38 (1): 62–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nasrallah, Aida. 2011. “The Representation of the Female Body in the Performances and Arts of Palestinian Woman in Israel from 1998 to 2010.” PhD thesis, Tel Aviv University.Google Scholar
Nasrallah, Aida. 2018. “Omanut, bzut, feminism: ha'mag’il, ha'bazui ve'ha’dohe be'avodoteha shel Hanan Abu Hussein.” Migdar: Ktav et academy rav thumi le'migdar u'le’feminism 5:2–20.Google Scholar
Noland, Carrie. 2009. Agency and Embodiment: Performing Gestures/Producing Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ophir, Hodel. 2018. Choreographia shel shinuy [Choreographing Social Change]. Tel Aviv: Resling.Google Scholar
Rabinowitz, Dan, and Abu-Baker, Khawla. 2005. Coffins on Our Shoulders: The Experience of the Palestinian Citizens of Israel. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Rouhana, Nadim M. 2017. “The Psychopolitical Foundation of Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State.” In Israel and Its Palestinian Citizens: Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State, edited by Rouhana, Nadim M. and Huneidi, Sahar S., 3–35. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rouhana, Nadim M., and Sabbagh-Khoury, Areej. 2017. “Memory and the Return of History in a Settler-Colonial Context: The Case of the Palestinians in Israel.” In Israel and Its Palestinian Citizens: Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State, edited by Rouhana, Nadim M. and Huneidi, Sahar S., 393–432. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sa'ar, Amalia. 1998. “Carefully on the Margins: Christian Palestinians in Haifa between Nation and State.” American Ethnologist 25 (2): 215–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sa'ar, Amalia. 2004. “Many Ways of Becoming a Woman: The Case of Unmarried Israeli-Palestinian ‘Girls.’” Ethnology 43 (1): 1–18.Google Scholar
Sa'ar, Amalia. 2007. “Contradictory Locations: Assessing the Position of Palestinian Women Citizens of Israel.” Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 3 (3): 45–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabbagh-Khoury, Areej. 2004. The Palestinians in Israel: Historical, Social and Political Background. Haifa, IL: Mada al-Carmel.Google Scholar
Segal, Lynn. 1994. Straight Sex: Rethinking the Politics of Pleasure. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Shalabi, Manal. 2010. “The Sexual Politics of Palestinian Women in Israel.” In Displaced at Home: Ethnicity and Gender among Palestinians in Israel, edited by Kanaaneh, Rhoda Ann and Nusair, Isis, 153–168. New York: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera. 2017. “Settler Colonialism, Surveillance and Fear.” In Israel and Its Palestinian Citizens: Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State, edited by Rouhana, Nadim M. and Huneidi, Sahar S., 336–366. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shay, Anthony. 2008. “Dance and Human Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia.” In Dance, Human Rights and Social Justice, edited by Jackson, Naomi and Shapiro-Phim, Toni, 67–85. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.Google Scholar
Shay, Anthony and Sellers-Young, Barbara. 2003. “Belly Dance: Orientalism-Exoticism-Self-exoticism.” Dance Research Journal 35 (1): 13–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shokeid, Moshe. 1998. “Zehut etnit u'ma’amadan shel nashim Arviot be'ir Yisraelit.” In Ha'havaya ha'bein tarbutit, edited by Shokeid, Moshe and Deshen, Shlomo, 225–243. Jerusalem: Schocken.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Shanya. 2016. “Public Pleasures: Negotiating Gender and Morality through Syrian Popular Dance.” In Islam and Popular Culture, edited by Nieuwkerk, Karin Van, Levin, Mark, and Stokes, Martin, 278–295. Austin: University of Texas Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spivac, Gayatry Chakravorty. 1988. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, edited by Nelson, Cary and Grossberg, Lawrence, 271–313. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tatios Yessayan, Maral. 2015. “Lingering in Girlhood: Dancing with Patriarchy in Jordan.” Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 11 (1): 63–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Diana. 2000. “Denise Stoklos: The Politics of Decipherability.” The Drama Review 44 (2): 7–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas-Krouse, Ondra. 2004. “Dancing to Transgress.” The Langston Hughes Review 19:27–39.Google Scholar
Vance, Carole S. 1984. Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality. Boston: Routledge/Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Walters, Suzanna Danuta. 2016. “Introduction: The Dangers of a Metaphor—Beyond the Battlefield in the Sex Wars.” Signs 42 (1): 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yiftachel, Oren. 1999. “’Ethnocracy’: The Politics of Judaizing Israel/Palestine.” Constellations 6 (3): 364–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yiftachel, Oren. 2011. “Ghetto Citizenship: Palestinian Arabs in Israel.” In The Palestinians in Israel: Reading in History, Politics and Society, edited by Rouhana, Nadim N. and Sabbagh-Khoury, Areej, 128–137. Haifa, IL: Mada al-Carmel.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 1980. “Throwing like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment Motility and Spatiality.” Human Studies 3 (2): 137–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar