The Areito

 Unit: Indigenous Dance

Theme: The Areito


I

  Introduction

 

The areito was the dance practiced by the indigenous Caribbean men and women.  It was a complex ritual in which dance was just the vehicle to connect with the spirit world, create a sense of community and control the forces of nature.


 II

 Learning Objectives


  • Introduction to the student's research
  • Understand the meaning of areito
  •  Explain the importance of areito
  • Gain an awareness of the mechanics of the dance
  • Experience the five ceremonial stages of the dance
  • Reflect on the work done in class


 III

 Main Lesson


1

 

a. Introduction to student's research.

b. Write a brief introduction where you explain how this independent study course will fit into your own research.


------------------- 

 

2 

c) Concept of the areito according to Diana Taylor 

 The Archive and the Repertoire

  • Introduction, page xviii (last paragraph) - xix, paragraphs
  • Page 4, last paragraph
  • Page 8, first paragraph
  • Page 14, last paragraph till page 15

link: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Archive_and_the_Repertoire/5yHpwSwQq2QC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=The+Museum+and+the+Repertoire&printsec=frontcover 

 

 

3

d) Different phases of the dance based on Article by J. L. Morejon

 

 
  • Origin 
  • Mechanics
  • Ceremonial Stages
 https://www.scielo.br/j/rbep/a/WS5vKQPZPp9D454fj8NkFKx/?lang=en


IV

 A Note to Remember

 Part of what performance and performance studies allow us to do, then, is take seriously the repertoire of embodied practices as an important system of knowing and transmitting knowledge. (Taylor 26)

 

V

 Case Studies

Miguel A. Sagué-Machiran (Sobaoko Koromo), a native of Cuba, is an artist and retired as an elementary and preschool teacher in Pennsylvania. He is chief beike of the Caney Indian Spiritual Circle. He grew up steeped in the rich hybrid tradition of the Caney Circle Healing Dance. Contemporary participants of the Taino Resurgence Movement have adopted portions of the Cuban Cordon Dance, purged it of its syncretic Christian and Spiritist elements as a recovered aspect of their ancient culture and have integrated it into their current ceremonial practices. See bellow examples of how areito practices are still present in other regions of the continent.

 

Cordon Dance

 

Suriname Arawakan music and dance that looks like Cordon

 

Kalinago Dance like Cordon in Dominica

 

Wapishana Indidenous people in Guyana

VI

Discussion Questions

1. Based on the readings and the videos above, summarize your ideas about the origin, importance and mechanics of the areito dance.

2. Why is the study of the areito an important epistemological frame when trying to understand a dance-ritual ?

Post your answer on Discussion Board

 

VII

 Activity

 

 Experience the main steps of the areito dance.


3. Post a written reflection of your experience learning the main step of the areito dance on Discussion Board.

 ------------------------


VIII

 Glossary

 

  • areito 

  • embodied knowledge
  •  
  • epistemology

 


IX

 Sources

Taylor, Diana (2003). The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas. Duke University Press

Morejon, Jorge Luis (2018). From the Areíto to the Cordon: indigenous healing dances. Revista Brasileira de Estudos da Presença



 
X
 
Students' Work

Proposed Syllabus:

DAN 793 Independent Studies – Caribbean Dance: History and Theory

Special Topic: Bodies in Motion: Dance and Movement of the Caribbean and its Diaspora

Professors: Dr. Jorge Moreand Carol Kaminsky

Meeting Time: TBD

 

Date Readings Submissions

Week 1: August 23  / Overview of Caribbean Dance · Susanna Sloa, Making Caribbean Dance: Continuity and Creativity in Island Cultures (2010), pp. 1-224 Annotated Bib entry

Week 2: August 28 / Movement and Identity in the Caribbean · Susanna Sloa, Caribbean Dance from Abak to Zouk: How Movement Shapes Identity (2005) Annotated Bib entry

Week 3: September 6 / Caribbean Dance Discourse · Bill Maurer, “Caribbean Dance: Resistance, Colonial Discourse, and Subjugated Knowledges” (1991) · L’Antoinette Stines, “Does The Caribbean Body Daaance Or Daunce? An exploration of Modern Contemporary Dance from a Caribbean Perspective” (2005) Annotated Bib entry

Week 4: September 13 / Negotiating Identity · Stuart Hall, “Negotiating Caribbean Identities” · Helen Safa, “Popular Culture, National Identity, and Race in the Caribbean” (1987) Annotated Bib entry

Week 5: September 20 / Cuerpo · Zapata Olivella, Las claves mágicas de América (raza, clase y cultura). · Jalil Sued-Badillo, “From Taínos to Africans in the Caribbean,” 97-113 in The Caribbean: A History of the Region and Its Peoples Annotated Bib entry

Week 6: September 27 / Embodiment · Yvonne Daniel, Dancing Wisdom: Embodied Knowledge in Haitian Vodou, Cuban Yoruba, and Bahian Candomble (1994) Annotated Bib entry

Week 7: October 4 / Santería, Espiritismo · Aisha M. Beliso De Jesús, “Introduction: Transnational Santería Assemblages” and Chapter 5:“Contaminating Femininities” Electric Annotated Bib entry

Santería: Racial and Sexual Assemblages of Transnational Religion. · George Brandon, “Cuba: Pre-Santería and Early Santería” Santeria from Africa to the New World

Week 8: October 11 / Poetics and Politics · Torres-Saillant, Silvio, Caribbean Poetics. · Anca Giurchescu, “The Power of Dance and its Social and Political Uses” (2001) Annotated Bib entry

Week 9:

October 18 Diaspora · / Yolanda Martínez San Miguel, “Introduction.” Coloniality of Diasporas. · Frank Espada: The Puerto Rican Diaspora Project, https://repository.duke.edu/dc/frankespada (see sections on Music and Dance) Annotated Bib entry

Week 10: October 25 / Salsa: Transformation from Movement and Migration · Ángel G. Quintero-Rivera and George Leddy, “Cultural Struggles for Hegemony: Salsa, Migration, and Globalization.” (2011) · “‘Where We Were Safe’: Mapping Resilience in the 1970s Salsa Scene.” The Latinx Project at NYU. · “The Soul of the Barrio: 30 Years of Salsa.” NACLA. Annotated Bib entry

Week 11: November 1 / Salsa and/as Latinidad · Andrés Espinoza Agurto, Salsa Consciente: Politics, Poetics, and Latinidad in the Meta-Barrio (Latinos in the United States) (2021) Annotated Bib entry

Week 12: November 8 / Body, Performance, and Identity: Dominicanish · Sharina Maillo-Pozo (2023) Storytelling from the Borderlands of La Romana and New York: A Journey through Josefina Báez’s Dominicanish, Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, 56:1, 17-23. · Kristina Stajic. “Cuerpo, lenguaje y heterogeneidad en Dominicanish, de Josefina Báez.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos (2019): 179-194. · Josefina Báez, Dominicanish: a performance text. Annotated Bibliography Due

Week 13: November 15 / Literary Reflections of Embodied Movement: · Achy Obejas, Memory Mambo (1996)

Week 14: November 22 / Literary Reflections of Embodied Movement: · Oscar Hijuelos, Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989)

Week 15: *Thankgiving / Break* *on break* *on break*

Week 16: December 6 Final Essay/Research Paper Due (8-10 pages)

 


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