• Dancing with Knives: American Cold War Ideology in the Dances of West Side Story

    Author(s):
    Daniel Belgrad (see profile) , Zhu Ying
    Date:
    2016
    Group(s):
    Performance Studies, War Studies
    Subject(s):
    Affect (Psychology), Choreography, Dance, Ideology, War and society
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Affect, Performance and politics
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M62R9R
    Abstract:
    In cultural studies today, there is emerging an interpretive revolution “from below” – that is, a radical reassessment of the politics of cultural forms, based on a recovery of the embodied and affective subject as the center of meaning-making. Making sense of dance performances is therefore methodologically important because of their particular ability to offer insight into these two aspects of subjectivity. As an artifact of Cold War American culture, Jerome Robbins’ choreography in the film West Side Story (1961) enforces an ideological distinction between legitimate and illegitimate forms of violence, through its portrayals of “cool” affect as a necessary disposition, and organized violence as a necessary evil. Our close analysis of the dances “Rumble” and “Cool” offers new insights into the affective “map” that provided the ideological foundation for American political theorists and policy makers in formulating their Cold War attitudes.
    Metadata:
    Published as:
    Journal article    
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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