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Aesthetics and possession: Katherine Dunham’s ‘Shango’ and the Black Dance Performance tradition

Y. W. V. Hunter

Dance, Movement & Spiritualities June 1, 2024 DOI: 10.1386/dmas_00069_1 (opens in new tab)

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Characteristics Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed
Key points Argues that Katherine Dunham's 'Shango' enacts Haitian Vodou spirit possession as an aesthetic value, catalyzing an aesthetic of Black Dance Performance. Proposes that the sublime reveals the sacred and secular in performance as aesthetically enmeshed and entangled.

Abstract

In this article, I explore the aesthetic interconnectedness between Katherine Dunham’s ‘Shango’ and Haitian Vodou spirit possession (a sublime embodiment). I assert that Dunham’s ‘Shango’ catalyses an aesthetic of Black Dance Performance through the enactment of spirit possession as an aesthetic value within the choreography and Black Dance Performance largely. I employ an intertextual, phenomenological and auto-ethnographic lens as navigational tools through the foundational theories of Immanuel Kant, Roberto Strongman, Karen MCarthy Brown and Yvonne Daniel. Specifically centring the sublime as a philosophical anchor reveals the intersection of the sacred and the secular in performance as aesthetically enmeshed and entangled.

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