Thanks to reader Virginia Raymond, who recently responded to IntLawGrrlsare we too pink? query with a link to a wonderful story from Emma Goldman's autobiography. For those, like yours truly, who've not read the book, here's the detailed version of the one-liner often attributed to Goldman, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution":
At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening a cousin of Sasha [Alexander Berkman], a young boy, took me aside. With a grave face, as if he were about to announce the death of a dear comrade, he whispered to me that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. Certainly not with such reckless abandon, anyway. It was undignified for one who was on the way to become a force in the anarchist movement. My frivolity would only hurt the Cause. I grew furious at the impudent interference of the boy. I told him to mind his own business, I was tired of having the Cause constantly thrown into my face. I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from conventions and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement should not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it. "I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things." Anarchism meant that to me, and I would live it in spite of the whole world--prisons, persecution, everything. Yes, even in spite of the condemnation of my own comrades I would live my beautiful ideal. [Living My Life (New York: Knopf, 1934), p. 56]
As Virginia notes, and regardless of what one thinks of Goldman's more controversial political positions, this little vignette epitomizes pink -- fierceness and radiance, principled action and joy, a sharply critical voice combined with dedication to a cause bigger than oneself. Like the Chilean widows and mothers who danced the cueca solo in protest, to be pink is to speak out about injustice despite the very serious risks in doing so, in the process transcending barriers between the public and private sphere, and all the while embracing the vibrancy of life. In other words, without dance, how can there be a revolution?
Miss Ulanova performed most of the greatest roles in classical ballet, including the leads in 'Giselle,' 'Swan Lake,' 'Cinderella' and 'Sleeping Beauty.' Such was her power that when Mr. Martin criticized -- mildly -- her performance in 'Swan Lake' during the 1959 New York tour, Pravda responded the next day by accusing him and The Times of being 'bent on continuing the cold war.'
Ulanova, depicted below in clips from her performances of "Giselle" and "Romeo and Juliet," died in Moscow in 1998.
On this day ... ... in 1873, Beulah Maude Durrant is believed to have been born in Toronto, Canada (different sources give different dates; some even alter her birth name). In her 20s she studied piano in Berlin, Germany. After her brother was executed in 1898 for murdering 2 women in San Francisco, California, where she had grown up, she changed her name to Maud Allan and abandoned the piano for dance. Allan, who once published a sex manual, is best known for her "Vision of Salome" dance (above), and for her involvement in a salacious defamation trial. She traveled throughout the world during her career, and died in Los Angeles in 1956. (credit for photo ca. 1906-1910)
Midway through Intro Week here at California-Davis, an amazing 1L is on a quest to earn a $10,000 scholarship to help defray law school "fees" that, thanks to California's budget crisis, have gone through the roof these last years. My-Linh Le (left), Class of 2012, explains in the clip below, via wonderful animation, video, and voiceover, why she chose to cut short a career in dance in order to enter law school:
[L]aw completed her. She also decided that artists, filmmakers, musicians, choreographers, writers, and the like could probably use some legal advice every now and then, too.
Senegal is a country with two vibrant traditions: Located on Africa's west coast, Senegal's population is ninety-five percent Muslim. But the traditions of the ancestors are an integral part of society. One way such traditions are kept alive is through art and culture. Sabar, a traditional dance and drumming technique, holds pride of place with Senegalese both as a form of expression and as a method of connecting with Senegal's rich past. It is played at weddings, christenings, as well as large family gatherings.
Not every segment of society views Sabar with pride. Since independence in 1960, some of Sabar's dance steps have been banned by various governments for being too sexually explicit. Muslim leaders have repeatedly denounced Sabar, and in the more fundamentalist regions of Senegal, the dance is simply forbidden. Sabar is under siege, but it persists.
The ban on Sabar also has gendered implications. Whenever the explosive combination of sex and religion meet, women always seem to find themselves in harms way. Recently, a famous female traditional dancer was tried and condemned for dancing the Sabar (the presiding judge was also a woman.)
Thankfully, with the advent of 21st century technology--and yes, globalization--the Senegalese are able to share the rich cultural heritage of Sabar with the world. Attached below is a short YouTube clip detailing the dance steps (for the prurient among us, the "objectionable" steps begin at 2:39!)]. The second clip is a short and excellent documentary exploring gender issues, Islam, and the Sabar in Senegal.
The Forbidden Steps of the Sabar:
Sabar and Women: A Documentary
Heart felt thank you to IntLawGrrl guest/alumna Fatou Kiné Camara for information on this important issue!
On this day in ... ... 1951, at a meeting in Beijing, China presented a 5-member delegation of the Tibetan government with a draft agreement. According to the Tibetan Government in Exile, the delegation "rejected the Chinese proposal in toto," and in any event did not have power to enter a pact with China; nonetheless, after undergoing "harsh and insulting terms" and being both "threatened with physical violence" and isolated from its Government, on May 23 the delegation signed the "Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" to avoid "an immediate military advance on Lhasa," Tibet's capital. China's official news service, Xinhua, has an extremely different view of events. As we've posted, China's half-century presence in -- and the Dalai Lama's exile from -- Tibet sparked riots there last month. This month, there've been disturbances nearly everywhere the Olympic torch has been displayed. .... 2008 (today), is celebrated the 6th annual International Dance Day. At this year's celebration at UNESCO headquarters in Paris will feature performances by South African and French dancers as well as delivery of the annual "Message" by dancer and choreographer Gladys Faith Agulhas, shown at right with Makhotso Sompane (photo credit) of Agulhas Theatre Works, Johannesburg. The date was set aside in order, as UNESCO put it,
to bring all dance together on this day, to celebrate this art form and revel in its universality, to cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers and bring people together in peace and friendship with a common language : Dance.
On March 17, ... ... 2008(today), women, children, and men who are Irish -- whether by nature or nurture -- celebrate St. Patrick's Day. It's an occasion for parades, like that on which we posted last year. This year, it's a day for sending our heartfelt commendation to Keltic Dreams, the transnational Irish dance team from P.S. 59 in New York's Bronx borough. The team's preteen dancers are from families with roots not in Ireland -- it appears from an article in the New York Times that only coach and teacher Caroline Duggan may make that claim -- but rather from places Belize and Puerto Rico and any number of countries on the African continent. Yet all have embraced the percussive excitement of the dance form, morphed as it's been with strains of salsa and hip-hop. And my transnational foremother, Grace O'Malley, would be delighted to learn of their visit to Broadway's "The Pirate Queen." Keltic Dreams' is story that uplifts; would that there were more of them. ... 1948 (60 years ago today), the Treaty of Brussels was signed in that Belgium capital by Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The treaty, which entered into force on August 25 of the same year, provided that the states parties would "cooperate" on matters of economy, society, culture, and collective self-defense. It thus proved a forerunner to subsequent treaties leading to close European integration.
Thanks to reader Virginia Raymond, who recently responded to IntLawGrrls are we too pink? query with a link to a wonderful story from Emma Goldman's autobiography. For those, like yours truly, who've not read the book, here's the detailed version of the one-liner often attributed to Goldman, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution":
