tailieunhanh - A TASTE OF HONEY: CHOREOGRAPHING MULATTA IN THE HOLLYWOOD DANCE FILM

The representation of drug treatment in America can affect society in several ways, including stigmatization. Elizabeth Hirschman (1992), in her study of cocaine use in films, argues that "motion pictures which focus upon addiction can serve as instructive, semiotically-rich texts for communicating cultural knowledge about addiction" (p. 428). This communication is not simply one-way, though; it exists as a continual feedback loop, with movies "both reflect[ing] and shape[ing] individual and societal values, attitudes, and behavior" (Wedding, 2000, p. 3). Thus representations from cinema can become received knowledge, which is incorporated into societal views. These shifts may then be mirrored and reinforced in subsequent movies. Obviously, films are no "magic bullet" with the. | International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media Volume 5 Numbers 2 3. intellect Ltd 2009. Article. English language doi i A taste of honey choreographing mulatta in the Hollywood dance film Melissa Blanco Borelli University of Surrey Abstract This article examines the filmic representations of the mulatto body In the films Sparkle 1976 Flashdance 1983 and Honey 2003 . More specifically this article seeks to unravel how the Hollywood flmlc apparatus engages with signt-fiers of raced sexuality and hierarchies of dance styles to enforce and reify mythic narratives about dance dancing raced bodies and dance-making. By establishing a genealogy of the mulatto body in a US context through dance and or performance films these juxtapositions illustrate how the mulatto subject develops from a tragic figure in Sparkle to an independent and self-reliant one In Honey . Critical dance studies provide the analytical framework by allowing a focus on particular choreographed and Improvised dance sequences performed by each film s respective mulatto protagonist. Keywords mulatta body raced sexuality Hollywood film racialtzed hips hybridized movement choreograph The figure of the mulatta colours many cultural imaginaries with her specific narratives. One such narrative the trope of the tragic mulatta appears prominently often obfuscating any other type of representation possible. As Hazel Carby 1987 88 writes the figure of the mulattfa should be understood and analysed as a narrative device of mediation mediating between the white and black worlds said figure straddles. Couched in Enlightenment ideologies of race the mulatta emerges as a tragic figure in that her genesis occurs from a violent union between two races - a dominant white one and a subservient black one. Werner Sollors explains the etymology of the word mulatto of sixteenth century Spanish origin documented in English since 1595 and designating a child of a black and a white parent was