Ceri (aka the Morrigan) writes:
Fancy that! So soon after the first post and I am back.
I hope you enjoyed the Chooky Dancers clip, because today I am putting up two more - and pay attention - because afterwards there will be a test.
First, the Chooky Dancers perform a new number at the Barunga Festival.
(You need to follow the link for this one, because it isn't a YouTube video).
Then, look at this, which is the same dance, performed on Australia Day.
Please look at the linked one first, before the embedded one.
Now, apart from the incredible technical skills of the Chooky Dancers, I need to ask, is one performance more 'Authentic' than the other?
One is performed outdoors, in the dust, with no enormous technical back up. It is performed before an appreciative audience of locals, and is, perhaps, not as 'polished'. The other, has all the technical and television back-up. Music, speakers, lighting, amplification and so on. Does it make one of the performances 'better' or somehow more real?
In both of the dances, the Chookys are obviously having fun. They are re-inventing the idea of their own culture as a global culture. I found it particularly interesting that one of the comments on the YouTube clip suggested that they were cheapening their own culture, and that this incredible technical performance was somehow embarrassing or demeaning. This view suggests that culture is frozen and stagnant, that it must never change, adapt, adopt or have fun. That we can never enjoy or play with culture, especially indigenous culture, because it is much too serious.
My view is that culture is not somehow separate from our lives and the things we do. It is a very Western view that art is something we do which is separate from everyday living. Other cultures around the world see it rather differently, in that arts of all kinds are integral parts of day-to-day life. That every day involves music, dancing, visual art, words and poems and fun and beauty and drama.
What do you think?
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