Dancing Indigenous Worlds: Choreographies of Relation

Jacqueline Shea Murphy's book, Dancing Indigenous Worlds, highlights the role of dance in expressing Indigenous ways of being and creating a political force. It combines analysis, personal narrative, and contributions from multiple dance artists to demonstrate how dance assertions and enacts Indigenous worldviews and the embodied experiences of Indigenous peoples. Murphy's work contributes to decolonizing dance studies and discusses the ethics of writing about Indigenous knowledge and peoples.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 344 pages
Publication date: 10 January 2023
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

In her groundbreaking book, Dancing Indigenous Worlds, Jacqueline Shea Murphy takes readers on a captivating journey into the world of contemporary Indigenous dance. By placing critical dance studies and Indigenous studies in dialogue with one another, Murphy offers a fresh and innovative perspective that sparks new insights and understanding.

Through her exploration of Indigenous dance from North America and Aotearoa (New Zealand), Murphy showcases how dance artists communicate Indigenous ways of being and generate a powerful political force, engaging with Indigenous understandings and histories.

Murphy's approach is unique as she follows specific dance works over time, interweaving analysis, personal narrative, and written contributions from multiple dance artists. This multifaceted approach allows her to demonstrate the crucial role that dance plays in asserting and enacting Indigenous worldviews and the embodied experiences of Indigenous peoples.

As Murphy asserts, these dance-making practices have the potential to disrupt the structures that European colonization has built and seeks to maintain. They can also recalibrate contemporary dance, offering new ways of understanding and experiencing the art form.

Murphy's work is based on more than twenty years of relationship building and research, making it a significant contribution to the growing and largely underreported discourses on decolonizing dance studies. She delves into the geopolitical, gendered, racial, and relational meanings that dance theorizes and negotiates, offering valuable insights into the complex interplay of power and identity in the world of dance.

In addition to her academic contributions, Murphy also addresses the ethical considerations of writing about Indigenous knowledge and peoples as a non-Indigenous scholar. She models approaches for doing so within structures of ongoing reciprocal, respectful, and responsible action, ensuring that the voices and experiences of Indigenous communities are accurately represented and honored.

Dancing Indigenous Worlds is a must-read for anyone interested in dance, Indigenous studies, or the intersection of culture and identity. Murphy's book offers a rich and nuanced perspective that challenges preconceptions and sheds light on the profound ways in which dance can shape and transform our understanding of the world.

Weight: 567g
Dimension: 229 x 178 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781517912680