The State Department sponsored tours of Jose Limon and his modern dance company, 1954 and 1957: Modern dance, diplomacy, and the Cold War

In this study, I examine two State Department sponsored tours made by the Jose Limon dance company, the 1954 tour to South America and the 1957 tour to Western and Eastern Europe, and analyze their significance and political import as part of the U.S. government's cultural propaganda campaign. The study juxtaposes the discourse of the humanistic modern dance of Limon and his company with the discourse of the U.S. State Department's anti-Soviet propaganda campaign during the height of the Cold War to adduce evidence that the Limon company foreign tours were organized to meet specific objectives of the State Department's diplomatic agenda.; The study uses a historical methodology to examine the Limon company tours within the contextual framework of the political climate of the Cold War. It provides historical background on events which had a significant impact on the political situations in South America in 1954 and in Europe in 1956--1957 and therefore affected U.S. foreign policy operating in those regions. The study views the Limon tours alongside the State Department's propaganda campaign in an attempt to discover why it supported the tours and how and to what extent they were organized to meet specific foreign policy objectives.; The study provides a multifaceted account of the Limon company's 1954 and 1957 State Department sponsored tours analyzing planning and publicity; itineraries; repertory; audience and community response; the company's impressions of the tour stops; and their non-performance duties such as interviews, press conferences, social functions, lecture demonstrations, and attendance at local performing arts events. The study examines accounts of the tour by Limon and company members; United States Information Service (USIS) reports on tour outcomes and excerpts of foreign reviews included in these reports; and the dances themselves in order to determine the images and attitudes that were likely to have been portrayed to foreign peoples.; The study draws on materials from the Dance Collection at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Jose Limon Dance Foundation, the National Archives and Records Administration II, and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Historical Collection at the University of Arkansas.