| This dissertation defines how film is instrumental in the perpetuation of customary kinesthetic knowledge and considers the people who disseminate that particular knowledge. Issues such as authenticity, filmmaking aesthetics, and the purposes of film (i.e., whether or not it can effectively convey and teach dance) are addressed in the context of generating culture and performance. The investigation of these issues illuminates the collaborative ethnographic dance experience as seen on film. In order to assess the meaning and potential of the ethnographic or documentary dance film, I argue it is necessary to understand the perspectives of the individual who recorded and produced it. Only after an in-depth investigation of the researcher's relationship to the documented material can we begin to understand how movement becomes inscribed in film and consequently incorporated by future generations of dancers. Recent innovations in recording equipment, specifically digital video technology, have enabled researchers to disseminate folk dance and music to widespread and diverse populations, thereby providing alternatives to the commercially mediated modes of communication and encroaching globalization. Digital technology offers vast potential resources for the preservation, perpetuation, and dissemination of performative folk traditions. American dance ethnologist Aisha Ali exemplifies the advantages and limits of using contemporary digital technology for the dissemination of folk dance and music traditions. Ali embarked on series of extended field trips to the Middle East between the years of 1971 to 1997, where she recorded and filmed the lived music and dance traditions among the people of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. Ali subsequently released a series of documentary audio and video recordings that highlighted the personal interactions she shared with musician and dance performers in both urban and rural settings. Not only do her documentaries include personal stories and experiences, but also Ali records and ensures the preservation of the movement performances of others. This dissertation documents Middle Eastern culture from within the boundaries of lived experience while providing a framework to analyze and understand the manner of contemporary documentary fieldwork, which is applicable to the larger scholarly body of media ecology, folklore, and dance ethnology. |
