Issue Details: First known date: 2017... 2017 Pan-Indigenous Encounter in the 1950s : ‘Ethnic Dancer’ Beth Dean
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'From 1950, ‘ethnic dancer’ Beth Dean made her living on a lecture-demonstration touring circuit of the dance traditions of Australia, New Zealand, the Cook Islands and North America. To assert her expertise, she claimed to have studied Māori and Australian Aboriginal cultures for a number of years. This article investigates how Dean’s didactic performances drew on American traditions of ethnic dance to present apparently authoritative representations of Indigenous cultures, supported by Adult Education Boards in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia and national arts organisations. I argue that Dean exploited the symbolic potential of ‘corroboree’ as a performance of intercultural communication to establish her authority to speak about and perform Australian Aboriginal dance.'  (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Historical Studies vol. 48 no. 3 2017 12012233 2017 periodical issue

    'In this issue of Australian Historical Studies, recent scholarship highlights the ways that Australia and Australians have been shaped by global connections and influences – so that ‘looking back’ to our history is also an exercise in ‘looking out’ to the world. In the opening section on ‘Music and Dance’, two articles chart the history of international connections and local adaptations that occurred in the arts across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.'  (Editorial introduction)

    2017
    pg. 325-327
Last amended 12 Oct 2017 13:07:12
325-327 Pan-Indigenous Encounter in the 1950s : ‘Ethnic Dancer’ Beth Deansmall AustLit logo Australian Historical Studies
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