Political Complexities of Ethnochoreological Research: The Facets of Scholarly Work on Dance in the Countries of Former Yugoslavia

Abstract

As independent scholarly discipline grounded in folkloristics, ethnochoreology was predominantly founded within the state institutions of the socialist regime of former Yugoslavia after World War II and was consequently molded theoretically and methodologically in accordance with the prevailing ideology of the ruling socialist political system. In post-socialist regimes established in former Yugoslavian republics after the 1990s, which led to emerging market economies and caused huge modifications in the official social and educational policies of each country, ethnochoreology continued to be linked with state institutions. At the same time, however, it has been subject to extensive remodeling which included changes within the discipline itself along with its repositioning in the academic and educational system. This article examines political facets of ethnochoreological research in former Yugoslavian republics, comparing the experiences of many individual dance scholars. Based on interviews with colleagues from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro, the study will explore the general position of ethnochoreologists as well as their attitudes toward the relationships between dance research and the concrete political situations in each of their countries. Questions discussed encompass standpoints about how the political realities we are living in influence the remodeling of ethnochoreology in epistemological and methodological terms, but also its position in academic, educational and research contexts.