Dominant Narratives and Epistemic Violence in Argentine Dances Historiography: Possibilities of Disobedience

Abstract

Abstract: The article examines epistemic violence in Argentine dance historiography and offers a path towards epistemic disobedience. The dominant or common narrative of Argentine dance history centers around “Dance (with a capital letter) ‘in’ Argentina.” This epistemic statement implies a particular political, ideological, and aesthetic point of view that emphasizes a colonialist perspective. Thus, through the critical analysis of key texts in Argentine dance history, this article focuses on two key points for a decolonial epistemic change. First, it challenges the concept of dance implied in the previous statement —i.e. concert dance and specifically modern ballet, modern, and contemporary dance from Europe and the US— which hides its universalism and Eurocentric point of view. Secondly, it interrogates the meaning of “in Argentina” —which implies an identity based on dance as an imperial import and avoids defining what Walter Mignolo would call a locus of enunciation—, and its political, racial, and aesthetic consequences. This way, the article offers an epistemic delinking. Lastly, the article states some key points for epistemic disobedience, such as “placeism”; the problem of “presentism” and temporal linearity tending to the modernist teleology; the visualization of Others throughout questioning the archival logic through the concept of “repertoire” and “montage”. The article addresses: How are genealogies constructed? How is the canon created? What is the hegemony in Argentine dance studies? Which archives are privileged? Which voices and bodies are silenced through this narrative? What are the keys to epistemic disobedience in Argentine dance or dances historiography?