Post-colonial visitations: A South African's dance and choreographic journey that faces up to the spectres of ‘development’ and globalisation

Abstract

Abstract Working from the personal to the political, this paper begins with a self-interrogation around notions of identity – especially the notion of my contested African identity (Hall 1990) – as it relates to the need to engage a multiplicity of histories and cultures; be this race, ethnicity, nation or gender. This is interrogated within the paradigm of artistic constructions around contemporary dance and choreography within a postapartheid climate. From this ‘southern’ perspective, and drawing on debates and theories around development praxis (De Rivero 2001), ‘cultural exchanges’ are investigated in terms of how useful cultural ‘structural adjustment’ programmes might be for Africa and Africa's contemporary dance. This paper asks how possible it is for the north to truly exchange with Africa if we are endlessly being told how much ‘we need help’. This paper thus questions the northern notion of ‘free trade’ of culture and cultural products in terms of dance and choreography and whether this is ultimately beneficial to Africa. This paper argues that this cultural globalisation is a luxury that developing southern choreographers can ill afford. All of the above issues are negotiated through the theoretical writings of primarily southern based cultural theorists like Rustom Bharucha (2003), Richard Schechner (1991) and Giyatri Spivak (1990).