Fusion Dance

By Dr. Linda Ashley

The term fusion dance is usually understood as a process of ‘blending’ dances from two or more different cultures, genres or styles. Fusing dances from different cultural legacies could have two distinct outcomes. It could be seen as enriching the cultures, somewhat like fusion cookery, or as inappropriate cultural borrowing, even theft.

When we watch or make intercultural fusion dance, understanding the cultural values, protocols and world views as embodied by the dances can be unnecessary; all that is needed is an appreciation of innovation or novelty.

There are, longstanding concerns about the liberal way in which choreographers can sometimes borrow from other people’s cultures as legitimised by, what one might call, a ‘western’ license to thrill.

Arising from my own research, a risk that intrigues me is how we might be hijacking another culture’s dance making process by switching to a default creative dance choreographic approach. 
In this article I can only scratch the surface of what fusion dance might or might not be. Please take the opportunity to discuss this further.

Read the full article here (Iss. 35) Fusion Dance