European Influences on Dance in Indigenous Communities

The borrowing of cultural artifacts like dance and music is common among communities in contact. We see this all the time in folk dance. For example, we find dances named for other cultures that are meant to evoke the style and dance traditions of the peoples we interact with. For example, the Sârba in Romanian dance is meant to emulate the dances of Serbia and Schottisches of Germanic cultures are meant to reflect the dance styles of Scotland. But cultural borrowing is more fraught when we look at the influence of colonizer cultures on highly oppressed indigenous communities in places like North America and the Caribbean. One effect of colonization has been the adaptation of European folk traditions into these communities. Of particular interest are cases where the European dance has become indigenized. Indigenization is the phenomenon where the colonized people adapt the colonizer’s dances to meet their own culture, style and customs. In effect, taking the European dance and giving it a native flair. In this presentation, I look at four case studies of indigenization: (1) Red River Jigging of the Métis peoples of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. (2) Kwadril dances of the mixed black and indigenous populations of Martinique. (3) The Matachines dances of the Yaqui people of Arizona and Mexico, and finally (4) The Waila dances of the O’odham people who live near Tucson, Arizona. I will discuss key features of these styles that connect what are clearly cultural borrowings to more native ways of thinking and being.

About the presenter: Andrew Carnie, Ph.D., is Dean Emeritus and Professor of Linguistics and Applied Intercultural Arts at the University of Arizona. In addition to his work in dance documentation and ethnochoreology, his primary linguistic research is in theoretical and experimental syntax and the documentation of the Celtic Languages, especially Scottish Gaelic.

He is perhaps best well-known in the international folk dance community for his documentary website https://folkdancemusings.blogspot.com. In spring of 2023 he was recognized with an honorary lifetime membership in the National Folk Organization for his work in documenting folk dance.

Personal Website: https://linguistics.arizona.edu/person/andrew-carnie