Product Description

The function of dance in Latin/o American culture is the focus of the essays collected in . The contributors interpret how Latin/o culture expresses itself through dance, approaching the material from the varying perspectives of literary, cultural, dance, performance, queer, and feminist studies. Viewing dance as privileged sites of identity formation and cultural resistance in Latin/o America, translates the motion of bodies into speech, and the gestures of dance into a provocative socio-political grammar.

This anthology looks at many modes of danceincluding salsa, merengue, cumbia, rumba, mambo, tango, samba, and norteoas models for the interplay of cultural memory and regional conflict. Barbara Brownings essay on capoeira, for instance, demonstrates how dance has been used as a literal form of resistance, while Jos Piedra explores the meanings conveyed by women of color dancing the rumba. Pieces such as Gustavo Perez Frmats "I Came, I Saw, I Congad" and Jorge Salessis "Medics, Crooks, and Tango Queens" illustrate the lively scope of this volumes subject matter.