Display, Preserve, Perpetuate. Logics of Performance in some Yemenite Ethnic dance troupes in Israel
Display, Preserve, Perpetuate. Logics of Performance in some Yemenite Ethnic dance troupes in Israel

Author(s): Marie-Pierre Gibert
Subject(s): Anthropology, Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts
Published by: Етнографски институт САНУ
Keywords: Change; Dance; Performance; Recognition; Yemenite Jews
Summary/Abstract: Created in the 1970s, the so-called “Ethnic dance troupes” (lehakot etniot) exhibit the rich cultural heritage of some of the many groups composing the Israeli society: Jews from Yemen, Morocco, Kurdistan, Libya, Iraq, Ethiopia, or India, but also Arabs, Druzes or Circassians. By displaying elements of their culture, these troupes have participated in an important political claim of the 1970s in Israel: to be recognized and treated as equal to other parts of the population of this multicultural State. My anthropological work, conducted in Israel for the last twenty years, has focused on the dance repertoires of Jews coming from Yemen (or whose parents/grandparents came from there). This article intends to show how the repertoires they brought from Yemen have been used to construct the various performances of some Yemenite Ethnic dance troupes within this political framework of cultural recognition, and later, to preserve and perpetuate this heritage. More recently, turning their gaze towards the future of the dance troupes and their perpetuation, dancers and managers are proceeding to a radical transformation of what is performed on stage. The politics and perception of change will be explored, as well as performance logics that I have named “pedagogical” and “aesthetics”.

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