“In the name of harmony.” The imaginary of whiteness in the field of contemporary dance

Abstract

This article considers the social construction of bodies from the angle of the imaginary of whiteness and of racialization processes in the transnational contemporary dance field, in an effort to evidence how bodies become marked by racial difference in auditions and during the creative process. Based on a qualitative sociological study of dancers and choreographers active in the field, it begins by showing that whiteness constitutes a deeply invisibilized hegemonic norm whose performative effects contribute to producing othered bodies. It then examines how the dancers and choreographers in question appropriate and revalue this difference through their creative practices. They are able to subvert these assignations by resorting to choreographic and bodily aesthetic registers built around the idea of creolization and hybridity.