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Dancing the Pluriverse: Indigenous Performance as Ontological Praxis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2016

María Regina Firmino Castillo
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Abstract

This article discusses ways that Indigenous dance is an ontological praxis that is embodied and telluric, meaning “of the earth.” It looks at how dancing bodies perform in relationship to ecosystems and entities within them, producing ontological distinctions and hierarchies that are often imbued with power. This makes dance a site of ontological struggle that potentially challenges the delusional ontological universality undergirding imperialism, genocide, and ecocide. The author explores these theoretical propositions through her participation in Oxlaval Q'anil, an emerging Ixil Maya dance project in Guatemala, and Dancing Earth, an itinerant and inter-tribal U.S.-based company founded by Rulan Tangen eleven years ago.

Keywords

Decolonizationdiasporic IndigeneityembodimentIndigenous danceIxil Mayaontologyperformance studiespluriverse
Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 48 , Issue 1: Indigenous Dance Today , April 2016 , pp. 55 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 2016 

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