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Abstract
This research focuses on the process of heritagization and how it functions to both legitimize a dance practice and generate a new set of values for the practice. More specifically, I explore how the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed Modern Dance in Germany as Humanity’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) on its Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2022. I argue that this designation is a gradual recontextualization, that impacts both the practice itself and its status among global communities. Ultimately, this discursive change puts into question the categorization of German Modern Dance as “modern” in the midst of other “traditional” dances inscribed as heritage on the same list, and sparks questions about the influence of labels and categories on dance practices. I illustrate how the creation of dance as ICH enhances comprehension of national agendas linked to heritage appreciation, illuminates institutional participation in the formation of “national heritage,” and significantly contributes to the necessary definition and codification process for inscription, while also acknowledging the evolving and mutable nature of Modern Dance in Germany.
Notes
1 Auswärtiges Amt, “The Practice of Modern Dance in Germany Inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.” UNESCO, November 30, 2022. https://unesco.diplo.de/unesco-en/latest-news/-/2566450.
3 A heritage expert is a status which is achieved by completing various trainings and workshops devoted to the management and safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, including UNESCO training such as the one offered through the Expansion of the Global Network of Facilitators of the 2003 Convention, as well as practical work on national heritage-related projects.
4 The full text of the Convention is available at https://ich.unesco.org/en/convention.
5 See for instance Elsie Ivancich Dunin (ed.), Dance, Narratives, Heritage. Proceedings from the 28th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology 7-17 July, 2014. (Zagreb: Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, 2014); Valeria Lo Iacono and David H. K. Brown, “Beyond Binarism: Exploring a Model of Living Cultural Heritage for Dance,” Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research 34, no. 1, (2016), 84-105; Filip Petkovski and Luiza Beloti Abi Saab, “Dance as Intangible Cultural Heritage: Samba de Roda Through a Critical Lens” in Other Landscapes of Cultural Heritage(s): History and Politics, eds. Nuno Lopes, Walter Rossa, and Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo (Coimbra: University of Coimbra Press, 2023), 143- 164; Vicky Kämpfe, Dance Practices as Research: Approaches to the Safeguarding and Transmission of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Dance (Cham: Springer, 2023).
6 Rodney Harrison, Heritage: Critical approaches (London and New York: Routledge, 2013), 43.
7 Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).
8 Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “Theorizing Heritage,” Ethnomusicology 39, no. 3, (1995), 369.
9 Mary Lorena Kenny, “Deeply Rooted in the Present: Making Heritage in Brazilian Quilombos” in Intangible Heritage, eds. Laurajane Smith and Natsuko Akagawa (London and New York: Routledge, 2008), 152.
10 David Lowenthal, “Stewarding the Past in a Perplexing Present” in Values and Heritage Conservation (Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute, 2000), 18-25.
11 Derek Gillman, The Idea of Cultural Heritage (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 66.
12 See for instance David Lowenthal, Possessed by the Past: The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History (New York: Free Press, 1996); Regina Bendix, Culture and Value: Tourism, Heritage, and Property (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018); Valdimar Hafstein Tr., Making Intangible Heritage: El Condor Pasa and Other Stories from UNESCO (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018).
13 Regina Bendix, Culture and Value: Tourism, Heritage, and Property (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018).
14 Kristin Kuutma, “Concepts and Contingences in Heritage Politics” in Anthropological Perspectives on Intangible Cultural Heritage, eds. Lourdes Arizpe and Cristina Amescua Chávez (New York and London: Springer, 2013), 4.
15 Susan M. Pearce, “The Making of Cultural Heritage” Values and Heritage Conservation (Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute, 2000), 59-64.
16 Valdimar Hafstein Tr., “Claiming Culture: Intangible Heritage Inc., Folklore ©, Traditional Knowledge TM” in Prädikat "heritage": wertschöpfungen aus kulturellen ressourcen, eds. Dorothee Hemme, Markus Tauschek, and Regina Bendix (Münster: LIT Verlag, 2007), 91.
17 Stuart Hall, “Un-settling ‘The Heritage,’ Re-imagining the Post-nation: Whose Heritage?” Third Text 13, no. 49 (1999), 5.
18 Laurajane Smith, Uses of Heritage (London: Routledge, 2006), 11.
19 The full text of the Proclamation can be accessed at: https://ich.unesco.org/en/proclamation-of-masterpieces-00103
20 UNESCO (2003) Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Available at: https://ich.unesco.org/en/convention (accessed March 22, 2023).
21 German Commission for UNESCO. 2022. “Nomination File No. 01858 for Inscription in 2022 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.” https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/the-practice-of-modern-dance-in-germany-01858. UNESCO, n.d. Accessed February 16, 2023.
22 See for instance Sally Banes Terpsichore in Sneakers: Post-modern Dance (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980); Jack Anderson, “The Evolution of Modern Dance” Dance Research Journal 23, no. 2 (1991): 5-19; Susan Manning, Ecstasy and the Demon: The Dances of Mary Wigman (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993); Ann Daly, Done into Dance: Isadora Duncan in America (Middletown: Indiana University Press, 1995); Jo Ellen Brown, Modern Dance in a Multicultural World (Champaign: Human Kinetics, 2001); Susan Au, Ballet and Modern Dance (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2002); Andre Lepecki, “The Exhausted Modern Body” TDR: The Drama Review 49, no. 4 (2005): 106-123; Rachel Fensham and Alexandra Carter, Dancing Naturally: Nature, Neo-Classicism and Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century Dance (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011); Jens Richard Giersdorf, The Body of the People: East German Dance since 1945 (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2013); Denis Klein, “The Body in Motion: The Evolution of Modern Dance” in The Oxford Handbook of Dance and the Popular Screen, eds. Karen Foss and Christine Gledhill (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013): 3-20; Clare Croft, Dancers as Diplomats: American Choreography in Cultural Exchange (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015); Danae Kleida, “Cinematographic Motion & Serpentine Dance.” Junctions: Graduate Journal of the Humanities 2, no. 1, (2017): 53–63.
23 Jens Richard Giersdorf, The Body of the People: East German Dance since 1945 (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2013).
24 German Commission for UNESCO. 2022. “Nomination File No. 01858 for Inscription in 2022 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.” https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/the-practice-of-modern-dance-in-germany-01858. UNESCO, n.d. Accessed February 16, 2023.
25 Marc Guschal, interviewed by the author, online, March 24th 2019.
26 For a detailed explanation of the overall process, see for instance Rieks Smeets and Harriet Deacon, “The examination of nomination files under the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage” in The Routledge Companion to Intangible Cultural Heritage, eds. Michele Steffano and Peter Davis (London and New York: Routledge, 2017), 22-39.
27 These measures involve “the identification, documentation, research, preservation, protection, promotion, enhancement, transmission, particularly through formal and non-formal education, as well as the revitalization of the various aspects of such heritage.” See UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Available at: https://ich.unesco.org/en/convention (accessed March 22, 2023).
28 The full text of the application requirements can be accessed at https://ich.unesco.org/en/forms.
29 Egil Bakka, “Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage – The Spirit and the Letter of the Law” Musikk og Tradisjon 29 (2015), 136.
30 Egil Bakka, interviewed by the author, Limerick, July 17th 2017.
31 UNESCO Declares Modern Dance in Germany an Intangible Cultural Heritage.” West Observer, November 30, 2022. https://westobserver.com/news/europe/unesco-declares-modern-dance-in-germany-an-intangible-cultural-heritage/.
32 Naila Ceribašić, “Novi val promicanja nacionalne baštine: UNESCO-va konvencija o očuvanju nematerijalne kulturne baštine i njezina implementacija” [A new wave of promoting national heritage: UNESCO’s Convention on Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage and its implementation]” in Proizvodnja Baštine: Kritičke Studije o Nematerijalnoj Kulturi, ed. Marijana Hameršak and Iva Pleše (Zagreb: Institut za Etnologiju i Folkloristiku, 2013), 302.
33 Nicholas Rowe, “Post-Salvagism: Choreography and Its Discontents in the Occupied Palestinian Territories” Dance Research Journal 41, no. 5 (2009), 45.
34 Prior to the ratification of the 2003 Convention, UNESCO’s previous program entitled The Proclamation of Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, established in 2001, included nineteen cultural practices from around the world, followed by additional twenty-eight in 2003 and forty-three other elements added in 2005. The Proclamation, however, has been criticized by numerous authors mainly for creating a hierarchy between the cultural practices and implying a competitive process, so the 2003 Convention was intended to be a more inclusive approach towards safeguarding cultural heritage. See for instance Kathy Foley, “No More Masterpieces: Tangible Impacts and Intangible Cultural Heritage” Asian Theater Journal 31, no. 2 (2014), 369-398.
35 Claudia Fleischle-Braun, interviewed by the author, March 21st 2019.
36 Claudia Fleischle-Braun, interviewed by the author, March 21st 2019.
37 Diana Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003), 23.
38 Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “World Heritage and Cultural Economics” in Museum Frictions: Public Culture/Global Transformations, eds. Ivan Karp, Corinne A. Kratz, Lynn Szwaja and Tomas Ybarra-Frausto (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006), 164.
39 Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “World Heritage and Cultural Economics” in Museum Frictions: Public Culture/Global Transformations, eds. Ivan Karp, Corinne A. Kratz, Lynn Szwaja and Tomas Ybarra-Frausto (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006), 161-162.
40 Claudia Fleischle-Braun, interviewed by the author, online, March 21st 2019.
41 Bojana Cvejić, Choreographing Problems: Expressive Concepts in European Contemporary Dance and Performance (London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 5.
42 Raymond Williams, “Culture is Ordinary” in Resources of Hope: Culture, Democracy, Socialism, eds. Stephen Cullenberg, John Berger, and Becky Hughes (London: Verso, 1989 [1958]), 1-14.
43 Raymond Williams, “Culture is Ordinary.”
44 Michel De Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).
45 Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
46 Peter Shils, “Tradition” Comparative Studies in Society and History 13, no. 2 (1971), 123.
47 Peter Shils, Tradition (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1981), 12.
48 Richard Bauman, “Folklore” in Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Entertainments: A Communications-Centered Handbook, ed. Richard Bauman (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 31.
49 David Guss, The Festive State: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism as Cultural Performance (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 17.
50 Felicia Hughes-Freeland, “Constructing a Classical Tradition: Javanese Court Dance in Indonesia” in Dancing from Past to Present: Nation, Culture, Identities, ed. Theresa Buckland (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2005), 55.
51 Peter Shils, “Tradition” Comparative Studies in Society and History 13, no. 2 (1971), 126.
52 Pertti Anttonen, Tradition through Modernity: Postmodernism and the Nation-state in Folklore Scholarship (Helsinki: Finish Literature Society, 2005), 12.
53 Pertti Anttonen, Tradition through Modernity: Postmodernism and the Nation-state in Folklore Scholarship (Helsinki: Finish Literature Society, 2005), 37.
54 Dean MacCannell, The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 34.
55 Pertti Anttonen, Tradition through Modernity: Postmodernism and the Nation-state in Folklore Scholarship (Helsinki: Finish Literature Society, 2005), 12.
56 Anya Peterson Royce, Ethnic Identity: Strategies of Diversity (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982), 92.
57 Diarmuid Ó Giolláin, “Myths of Nation? Vernacular Traditions in Modernity” Nordic Irish Studies, 12, (2013), 79.
58 Andrew Hewitt, Social Choreography: Ideology as Performance in Dance and Everyday Movement (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2015), 3.
59 German Commission for UNESCO. 2022. “Nomination File No. 01858 for Inscription in 2022 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.” https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/the-practice-of-modern-dance-in-germany-01858. UNESCO, n.d. Accessed February 16, 2023.
60 For discussions about dance heritage and heritage choreography, see for instance Filip Petkovski, “Choreography as Ideology: Dance Heritage, Performance Politics, and the Former Yugoslavia” Dance Research Journal 55, no. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), 98-119.
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Filip Petkovski
FILIP PETKOVSKI (Skopje, Macedonia) is an independent researcher who has a PhD in culture and performance from the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA, where he worked as a teaching fellow. He is the recipient of several prestigious scholarships and awards, including the Moss Scholars Award (UCLA), the Tamburitzans Grant in Aid (Duquesne University), and a scholarship from the European Commission (NTNU). Petkovski actively participates in and presents at conferences and symposia and has published articles in which he explores topics related to dance, nationalism, identity, and cultural heritage. In addition to his scholarly work, he is a theater director and choreographer and has worked on productions in Europe and the United States.