Inhabiting the Impossible
Dance and Experimentation in Puerto Rico
Artists and scholars celebrate the development, diversity, and ethics of Puerto Rican experimental dance
Description
This first-of-its-kind book brings together writing by artists and scholars to survey the lively field of Puerto Rican experimental dance across four decades. Originally published as Habitar lo Imposible, the translation in English features essays, artist statements, and interviews plus more than 100 photos of productions, programs, posters, and scores. Throughout, Inhabiting the Impossible provides fresh, invaluable perspectives on experimentation in dance as a sustained practice that has from the start deeply engaged issues of race, gender, sexuality, and politics. The book is also enhanced by a bibliographic section with detailed resources for further study.
Dance scholar Susan Homar was, until her retirement, a professor at Universidad de Puerto Rico.
nibia pastrana santiago is an artist and choreographer based in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Reviews
“Enters into current conversations about the connections between corporealities, choreography, dance, geopolitics, identity construction and ideas of nation, race, gender, class and sexuality, political agency and artistic practices--and the circulation of these concepts in the Americas. The book will interest scholars, students, practitioners and those interested in Latin American cultural theory, aesthetics, political studies, anthropology, or gender and sexuality studies.”
- Anamaria Tamayo-Duque, Universidad de Antioquia
“This history of experimental dance in Puerto Rico also serves as a model for understanding the aesthetic impacts of dance within particular cultural and political contexts. Further, it foregrounds the voices of artists as it narrates the importance of dance as a mode of cultural manifestation, whether on the street, in living rooms and kitchens, within ritual sites, in abandoned, repurposed spaces, or on concert stages.”
- Jennifer Monson, University of Illinois