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Dancing to Transgress: Palestinian Dancer Sahar Damoni's Politics of Pleasure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2022

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Abstract

As a woman Palestinian dancer and choreographer in Israel, Sahar Damoni performs within multiple contexts of cultural, gendered, and political oppression, employing her bodily art to challenge these structures, most poignantly through dances that express and evoke pleasure and sensual joy. Offering a detailed ethnography of three of Damoni's performances within one year in Israel/Palestine, I argue that an examination of her artistry provides unique insight into the intricate workings—and transgressions—of gender, ethnic, and national boundaries through the movement of the body in dance.

Keywords

Arab contemporary choreographerdance anthropologyfeminist theoryIsraelPalestinian dancerpolitics of pleasureSahar Damonisubaltern women

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Article
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Dance Research Journal , Volume 53 , Issue 3 , December 2021 , pp. 25 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Dance Studies Association

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