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Resource	Text: Journal
Title	Choreographed pasts: A historiographic inquiry into Australian and indigenous Australian concert dance
Creator Contributors	Luke Forbes, Author
Abstract/Description	Mid-twentieth-century concert dances by non-Indigenous Australian choreographers frequently appropriated Aboriginal Australians' image and cultural practices in an imbalanced cultural exchange, and yet dance scholarship construes non-Indigenous Australian-authored 'Aboriginality' as respectful veneration of Aboriginal Australia. Through a historiographical review of dance scholarship on 'Terra Australis' (1946) by Edouard Borovansky and Corroboree (1954) by Beth Dean, this article challenges speculation about the non-Indigenous Australian choreographers' good intentions and the positive outcomes of their pursuit of 'national identity' (by way of 'Aboriginality'). Moreover, the article seeks to unsettle dance scholars' nationalistic, teleological view of dance history in Australia, which discursively and narratively links non-Indigenous Australian concert dance on Aboriginal Australia to the 'emergence' of Indigenous Australian concert dance - from 'blackface' to Bangarra Dance Theatre - and lays claim to Indigenous Australian dance practices. The author argues that uncritical dance scholarly discourse on cultural appropriation and racialised representation has a negative impact on Indigenous Australian dancers and choreographers today, because the very concepts of 'Aboriginality' and 'Indigenous Australian concert dance' are used to further marginalise Indigenous Australians.
Subjects	Dance Indigenous Peoples
Source	Australasian Drama Studies, ADSA, VIC
Issue	73
Page	237-275
Date Issued	October 2018
Language	English
ISSN	0810-4123
Citation	Luke Forbes, Choreographed pasts: A historiographic inquiry into Australian and indigenous Australian concert dance, Australasian Drama Studies, 73, October 2018, 237-275
Resource Identifier	68794
Dataset	AusStage