Exotica, Ethnicity, and Embodiment: An Ethnography of Latin Dance in United States Popular Culture

Abstract

The work considers both dance and music as equal members of a gestalt, framing dance as a particular type of music reception, and addresses the question of how non-musicians make sense of musical sound through movement. It explores the connections between identity, ethics, and the aesthetic values of control and discipline; standardization and codification as strategies for legitimization and as a means for stylistic transformation; and most important, how the perception of "self" informs perceptions of the "other."