Annals OJTourismResearch,Vol. 23, No. 4, pp.

780-797, 1996
Pergamon Copyright 0 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd
Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
0160.7383/96 $l5.00+0.00
SOlSO-7383(96)00020-5

TOURISM DANCE PERFORMANCES

Authenticity and Creativity

Yvonne Payne Daniel

Smith College, USA

Abstract: Despite shifts in scale and context, dance performance in tourism settings, unlike
some other artistic expressions, remains authentic and creative. Possible explanations for
this include the manner in which authentic and creative are defined, the unique proper-
ties of dance as expressive behavior, and the particular politico-economic situation of differ-
ent settings. The data used for this study are cross-cultural, assessing Native American,
Oceanic, Caribbean, and African studies of dance performance, primarily those collected
during fieldwork in Haiti and Cuba. The analysis is interpretive, based on cultural framing
and examination of dance behavior and its affect. Keywords: experiential authenticity,
creativity, dance performance in the Caribbean, Oceania, Native America, and Africa.
Copyright 0 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd

R&urn& Les spectacles de danse dans le contexte du tourisme: authenticit et criativitt. En

dCpit des changements dtchelle et de contexte, les interpritations de danse dans des cadres
touristiques, 2 la diff&ence des autres sortes dexpression artistique, reste authentique et
creative. Une explication possible de ce fait comprend la fagon de dtfinir authentique et
crtative, les propriCtts uniques de la danse comme comportement expressive et la situation
politico-Gxonomique des diff&ents cadres. Les donnCes qui ont CtC utilisCes pour cette ttude
sent interculturelles, et elles reprtsentent des Ctudes amkrindiennes, oceaniques, cardibes et
africaines des spectacles de danse, avec une attention particulihre aux recherches sur le
terrain g Cuba et en Haiti. Lanalyse est interpritative et basCe sur un encadrement culture1
et un examen du comportement de dans et son effet. Mots-cl&: authenticite dexpbrience,
crhativitt, interprhtation de danse aux Caraibes, Octanie, AmCrique indigtne, Afrique.
Copyright 0 I996 Elsevier Science Ltd

INTRODUCTION
Many dance forms have been commoditized for an international
arts market. Some have been shaped for tourism performance within
their nations of origin, such as Brazils samba and lambada, Jamaica
and Trinidads limbo, calypso, and reggae, Haitis and the Dominican
Republics meringue, Senegals sabar, Zimbabwes Kalanga mabisa and
Ndebele war dances, South Africas boot dance, Mexicos hat dance,
Hawaiis hula, powwow dancing from the Apache and Comanche tradi-
tions, and disco and hiphop from the United States. Others have been
used in tourism promotions abroad. Some countries use video
presentations that alternate between wild animal enclaves and
ethnic dances from various peoples throughout the country, such as
Tanzania Trek. Other videos, like Folkl6rico National de Cuba,

Yvonne Daniel is a Five College Associate Professor (Smith College, Berenson #l,
Northampton MA 01063, USA. Email ydaniel@smith.edu) who specializes in research on
circum-Caribbean societies and cross-cultural dance performance. She is the author of Rumba:
Danceand Social Change in Contemporary Cuba (Indiana University Press) and several articles on
inequalities that are revealed through dance analysis. She has been a Ford Foundation Fellow
at the Smithsonian Institution.

780
 YVONNE DANIEL 781

publicize both unique historical traditions and original, more

contemporary music/dance creations.
Still other countries rely on live dance performances by touring
companies that advertise national identities and seek to secure inter-
national prestige, such as Les Ballets Africains of Guinea and
Senegal, Folklorico de Mexico, and Moisiev Russian Dance Company.
In fact, the Alvin Ailey Company in the United States, a contempo-
rary modern dance company known for its African American
perspective, could be viewed in its tourism art dimension when
noting that it has been one of, if not the most frequently, invited
dance company to represent the United States abroad, communi-
cating American national culture, but also, attracting visitors to its
home performances (Emery 1988:272; Jamison and Kaplan 1993).
Probably the most popular dance performance attraction worldwide is
ballet. The US ballet can be viewed in its tourism art dimension as well,
since it is performed for both domestic and international tourists (cf.
commercial fine arts as tourism arts, Graburn 1976:4-g). Although ballet
is not commonly regarded as tourism art, as Joann Kealiinohomoku
( 1969-70:24-33) reminded the disciplines of anthropology and dance
more than 20 years ago, it is a European and European American (or
ethnic) dance form and as such, it has often been staged, prepared, and
packaged to frame European and European American cultures. Few,
however, think of fine arts such as ballet as ethnic art that is put up for
sale, but from an economic view, for example, New York Citys American
Ballet Theaters (ABT) or Joffrey Ballets home seasons are important
attractions and they are programed with tourist expectations and a
discriminating market in mind. In fact, ballet performance in New York
has much in common with touristic dance performance elsewhere in
terms of intentions that frame the exotic other in traditional or extrav-
aganza dance style, motivations that conserve and present national or
ethnic cultures, and packaging that creates viable, mesmerizing products
that generate profits.
Tourist advertisements have often promoted dancing natives as
...archetypes of the exotic... (Silver 1993:308), but despite the
popular image, with the notable exception of Adrienne Kaepplers
(1973) comparison of traditional and touristic dance forms among four
Polynesian cultures, dance performance and its distinctive attributes
have been neglected in discussions and collections of tourism arts
research (Cohen 1993; Graburn 1976, 1984b). In fact, in anthologies
and studies of expressive culture, there has been an all-too-familiar
omission or separation of the examination of dance until recently
(Jopling 1971; Layton 1981; Otten 1976; Schechner and Appel 1990).
With cross-cultural analysis of dance performance in tourism
settings, it is interesting to note that this does not fully exhibit the
usual effects of artistic commoditization (Appadurai 1986:6-8,
12-16; Cohen 1988:381; Graburn 1984a:27)-i.e., a diminished
authenticity, a limited if not absent sense of creativity, or an
unvoiced, suppressed, or drastically changed layer of meaning. On
the contrary, the dance is often an exact simulation; a re-creation of
a historic past; a contemporary manifestation of inventiveness within
traditions and among styles; a holistic and multisensory
782 TOURISM DANCE PERFORMANCES

phenomenon that often communicates to tourists and performers at

a fundamental level.
This article suggests that touristic dance performance shares some
attributes with other commoditized arts, but it is also unique.
Despite shifts in scale and context, dance performance for tourists
remains authentic and creative. Possible explanations for this
include the manner in which authentic and creative are defined,
the unique properties of dance as expressive behavior, and the
particular politico-economic situation of differing tourism settings.
The data used here are cross-cultural, assessing Native
American, Oceanic, Caribbean, and African studies of dance
performance and practice, but primarily those collected during
fieldwork in Haiti (1970, 1974, 1976, 1980, 1991) and Cuba (1985,
1986-87, 1988, 1990, 1993). While this field research was not origi-
nally intended to focus on tourism, the issue could not be avoided
when examining dance performance in those locales. Moreover,
Haitian and Cuban destinations offer examples of the manner in
which authenticity is gauged and determined for dance perfor-
mance. These sites shed light on creativity within tourism settings
that have tendencies to restructure, condense, or minimize distinct
dance traditions.
The analysis is interpretive, based on cultural framing and exami-
nation of dance movement within the human body and its affect. It
centers around the issues of authenticity and creativity, not as polar-
ized aspects of tourism arts (since they overlap on occasion), but
because they are most frequently observed as characteristics and/or
primary effects of commoditized artistic forms.

AUTHENTICITY IN TOURISM DANCE PERFORMANCE

Artistic forms in tourism are often representative of products that
are more commonly used, more authentic or genuine, outside of
the tourism setting. Therefore, in dance performance, one of the
first issues to be considered is what is authentic dance in a tourism
sense. For other tourism art products, like a toy drum, a wooden bowl
with spoons, or a plastic box of shells in sea water, for example,
authentic revolves generally around anonymous authorship and
skill or accuracy in the replication of something used functionally by
members of a given society. Authenticity relates also to the use of
such functional items from one society as ornamentation, entertain-
ment, or contemplation by members of another society. Authenticity
includes a sense of boundary among differing sets of conventions,
rules, or regulations (Cohen 1988; Kasfir 1992).
Richard Handler and William Saxton have clarified some distinc-
tions between the various usages of authenticity (1988:242-260).
They argue that there are two kinds of authentic: the one applied
to visual arts is generally an external judgment by the
spectator/analyst and the one applied to performing arts and their
case of living history is an experiential authenticity. In the visual
arts, authenticity is most often based on collectors tastes, collectors
naming and categorization of genres and styles (Kasfir 1992:44-45),
 YVONNE DANIEL 783

and more recently, whether or not artifacts are signed. On the other
hand, experiential authenticity concerns itself with perfect simula-
tion, replication of a past, an isomorphism or similarity of struc-
tural form . ..between a living-history activity or event, and that
piece of the past it is meant to re-create (Handler and Saxton
1988:242).
Living history projects involve performers who re-enact events on
original historical sites, as in the battles that occurred during the
War for Independence or the US Civil War or the courtly dance
performances of the colonial halls and salons of historic
Williamsburg, Virginia. Despite their acknowledgement that the
past can never be known fully or with certainty, Handler and Saxton
note the attempt to combine what happened at a particular site with
the thoughts and feelings of the participants/actors during specific
events in the performance of living history projects-a type of
staged authenticity (MacCannell 1973), such as at Colonial
Williamsburg in Virginia, Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts, or
the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu, Hawaii. Over time, the
actors (sometimes tourists who are permitted to participate as
temporary/momentary actors in these venues) accumulate informed
reflections. Both actors and tourists as performers report that on
occasion their performance gives rise to magic moments, those
times when the sensation of experiencing the past becomes present
reality. In other words, in actively demonstrating the past, the past
becomes really real (Handler and Saxton 1988:245-247; cf. route
of communitas in Turner and Turner 1978).
Similarly, re-enactments of history as danced performances
depend greatly on the individual experience within this totality. For
example, in the dances of traditional deities performers expected to
impersonate the deities are transformed through spirit possession
and become the deity her/himself, or in danced mock battles the
competition and jealousies from ordinary social life are often
expressed in rigorous movement and, on occasion, reduced or
resolved. Authenticity prevails when the individual is
affected/touched so that she/he feels that the real world and the
real self are consonant (Handler and Saxton 1988:243-244,
247-248). It is here that touristic dance performance runs parallel
to living history projects in that it relies heavily on the desire for
authentic experiences of the performer to satisfy the tourists
desire for the authentic.
Ideally, both from the performers and viewers (emit and etic)
perspectives of dance performance in the tourism setting, authen-
ticity aims for historical, geographical, and cultural accuracy, which
usually includes movement materials-that is, gestures, rhythmic
motifs, and sequences-that have been identified with a particular
social group, movement that has been codified to some extent (even
within an improvisational form), and often movement sequences
that have been passed down from generation to generation
(Williams 1994). In particular, both from the viewers and analysts
perspective, authenticity also includes generalization of several
dance traditions from particular geographical regions and cultural
784 TOURISM DANCE PERFORMANCES

groups. For example, a ritual dance practice may include a wide

assortment and quantity of steps, sequences, and transitional
movements; these accumulate variations, but some steps or
sequences also disappear over time.
The tourism setting of these movement materials may utilize
either the most visually characteristic sections of the ritual dance
performance alone or condense each section to the barest
elements that have exhibited continuity. Likewise, in secular
dance traditions, a dance practice may include fully improvised
sections of solo or group dancing, as well as fully improvised
instrumental or vocal lines, neither of which have actual time
constraints, while the tourism setting of a popular dance form may
utilize only set portions of the movements and music. By gener-
alizing the movement material in these ways, authentic dance
performance accommodates some variation and some elements of
change within contemporary performance of traditional dance
forms, but it aims ideally for cultural and geographical accuracy
(Euell 1989).
Sometimes, with outside contact, foreign elements and structures
have been incorporated within traditional dance performance and
over time, these new (restructured or reinterpreted) forms and
styles have emerged as authentic for the performing community.
The evolved dance performances have sometimes taken pivotal or
primary positions in the dance performances, in the evaluation of
many community members as part of their cultural identity; and in
the esteem of many tourists. For example, Kaeppler (1973:71-85)
found that much traditional Hawaiian dance (dance that existed
before European contact) was conserved underground in response
to contact with missionaries and the resulting pressure from
colonization. Conversely, Tahitian traditional dance, in a similar
contact situation, was replaced by a new form. The new form has
now been completely integrated into the contemporary social system
and yet, with analysis, European musical structure, European instru-
mentation, and European performance focus dominate Tahitian
dance performance.
Kaeppler called the Tahitian and Hawaiian forms that emerged
airport art because they were frequently the first images that
tourists saw upon arrival. Very often, tourists to Polynesian islands
are greeted at airports and in hotel entrances with leis and dance
performance that utilizes English language, ukeleles, and dancers
costumed in grass skirts. In comparison with Tongan and Maori
dance structures, airport art in Hawaii and Tahiti was shaped
heavily by foreign influences and later, touristic practices. Kaeppler
placed airport art at one extreme end of a continuum that
included contemporary innovation and restructured or reinterpreted
forms, with dance performance before European contact at the
opposite end. The Tahitian airport art, for example, emphasized
the visual movement qualities of the traditional form that originally
focused on poetry as the seminal element of the dance performance;
the new became authentic, a radical change that was accepted
by the Tahitian community.
 YVONNE DANIEL 785

A different development of touristic dance performance occurred

when Euro-American explorers, soldiers, missionaries, settlers, and
later, Easterners, hippies, and various types of priests, came in
contact with Native Americans. Jill Sweet (1989:62-75) reports on
Pueblo Indians burlesquing outsiders within important seasonal
dance performances. Sometimes young male dancers would imitate
the peculiar behavior of priests, Texans, or hippies and at other
times, the imitation and eventual ridicule were performed by Pueblo
clown society members. Sweets study concludes that, for Pueblos,
the clown performances and burlesquing eased tensions around
disturbing events, such as the intrusion of outsiders, and allowed
Pueblos to make sense of the invading tourist/outsider by incorpo-
rating the other through a major vehicle of Pueblo expression,
dance performance.
The Pueblo case, in contrast to the Polynesian case, demonstrates
a conscious and more direct development of dance performance. In
Pueblo dance, the performing community marks its own under-
standing of foreign elements and also shows how the community
understands its evaluation by foreigners. By adding to its repertoire
of performance materials, Pueblo dance accommodates the tourism
situation. In both cases, however, new dance performances-from
the other (Tahiti) or about the other (Pueblo)-become accepted
as authentic dance of the performing community.
From the performing communitys point of view, authentic
dance forms are differentiated from one another by means of
style, type, and context, and until the appearance of tourism, the
mixing of forms has generally been judged as a violation of the
boundaries between forms. Combinations of dance steps from
different traditions, that is, intra-traditional mixtures, have been
judged as fakes, frauds, and certainly less than authentic.
However, sometimes such mixed performances permeate a
creative aspect, both from emit and etic perspectives. Frequently,
but not uniformly (as discussed later), touristic performance has
become the category of dance in which the mixture of varied tradi-
tions and major change may take place. The tourism setting, then,
provides the space and time for ideal definitions to expand, for
play and experimentation at the edges of boundaries with combi-
nations of styles and traditions that reach for innovation, inven-
tion, and creativity.
Among many touristic dances, however, authenticity is also deter-
mined within the actual dance performance, as in the experien-
tial authenticity of Handler and Saxtons (1988) discussion, and
the performer is often the critical item, the indicator of authen-
ticity. What happens to the performer in the process of or as a
result of a performance is often deemed critical in determining
authenticity. In fact, both within or outside of the tourism
setting, authenticity that is located within the performers dancing
is a critical criterion in judging and evaluating dance performance.
Beyond this setting, on the concert stage, this criterion is noted by
critics in terms of the performers commitment to the dance, in
terms of the transformation that occurs in performance, or in
786 TOURISM DANCE PERFORMANCES

terms of the effect experienced by the audience due to the inten-

sity of the dance.

Authentic Haitian Dance

Haitian tourism settings vividly illustrate Haitian culture through
dance performance and have done so for over a period of years of
the authors intermittent field research. Dance performances have
clearly promoted tidun dances as authentic Haitian culture and
have emphasized tourists expectation of the exotic in extrava-
ganza style (Kasfir 1992:46). Most of the larger and more popular
hotels in Port-au-Prince, the capital, manage to support an evening
of folkloric dance---@anchis, meringue, but mostly Vodun dances-as
a show for tourists. The same dance company has often been used
among several hotels, which has required a revolving schedule for
company personnel (e.g., Monday and Thursday nights at Ibo Lele,
Friday and Saturday nights at Cabanne Chaconne, Wednesdays at
Caste1 Haiti, etc). At other times, a hotel could retain its own dance
troupe, which appeared three, four, or live times per week (e.g.,
Hotel Oloffson). These shows have had a history since the occupa-
tion by United States marines (from 1915 to 1934) of catering to a
sense of escapism and capturing the tourist through shock and
sensual stimulation, such as the inclusion of an almost nude rendi-
tion of zarien, the spider dance of Haitian folklore, or the dramati-
zation of Vodun ceremonies (Goldberg 1981, 1982). These danced
performances have been offered with few introductory remarks and
with a great deal of emphasis on the foreign and exotic quality of
the Haitian other in extravaganza style-i.e., the augmentation of
production values (costuming, lighting, set designs, etc.) so that
cultural understandings are often disregarded and historical
functions are eclipsed within the dance performance.
Despite imagined notions or promoted expectations of tourists,
and despite the analysts understanding of the generalization of
several distinct dance traditions (including some generalizing or
distorting of local culture in terms of space, time, and often person-
nel), the touristic versions of Haitian dance performance have
encompassed what natives could and did determine as authentic
dance performance from the Vodun dance traditions. Through re-
enacting myths and the use of many of the requisite rhythms, instru-
ments, and gestures of Vodun dance performance, often ceremonial
spirit possession has occurred in the tourism setting; that is, there
has been an actualization of the ideal or genuine ritual performance.
Alan Goldberg (1982) h as described Haitian performers evalua-
tions of their own performances that explained authentic spirit
possession in the midst of touristic events he called play. They
report that, frequently during the dance performance for tourists,
the loas (spirits) arrived in the bodies of the performers. When this
occurred, the spirits subsequently assumed the direction of the
performance. Using Handler and Saxtons definition as applied to
dance performance, this would, therefore, augment the authentic
force of the dance performance. In the transition from Goldbergs
 YVONNE DANIEL 787

play to authentic, not only would there be a real performance by

means of the possession (experiential authenticity), but also an
authentic ritual event would continue thereafter by means of the
direction of the performance as a ritual event by the spirits.
Moreover, a differentiation within the level or degree of authentic
possession has been noted. In questioning Haitian, Cuban, and
Brazilian dancers on the experience of possession, when performers
receive the spirits, most dancers reported that they believed
something special happened and that they went elsewhere. When
asked to compare this ritual experience with touristic performances,
they differentiated among the latter types. They were aware of the
imitative, repetitive movement patterns of possession; they danced
for , about, and as the spirits. On other occasions, they remem-
bered nothing while performing possession segments. For example,
one devotee became possessed during a 1980 performance at le
cave in Haiti and despite her eating of a live chicken and running
from the performance space into the nearby Caribbean Sea, she
remembered nothing of her profoundly wet condition, nor any of her
behavior after the procession at the beginning of the evening perfor-
mance. Amnesia is characteristic of genuine spirit possession
(Bourguignon 1976; Walker 1972) and helps to indicate their ability
to differentiate among several tourist performances. Some touristic
dance performances were as authentic as those performed in ritual
events.
The effect of possession dance performance on tourists is usually
vivid and intense. Through the intense display of performers in their
attempts to simulate genuine community dance atmosphere, tourists
are affected kinesthetically. They are convinced of authenticity by
the display of unique instrumentation and costuming, by the foreign
languages in ritual chants and songs, but especially by the
aesthetic-mainly kinesthetic and visual-power of the distinctive
dance performance. Most often, they are convinced that they have
gone behind the scenes or backstage to a genuine Vodun, Santeria,
or Candomble ceremony (Cohen 1988; MacCannell 1973). After
viewing several performances, it could be assumed that audience
members may begin to question or be able to differentiate between
an act about spirit possession and authentic spirit possession.
Performances, however, are generally not scheduled to encourage
analysis or repeated viewing by the same tourists. What remains
impressive is that both performers and tourists rely on an experi-
ential authenticity that is located within the gestures, dance
sequences, and profound affect of dancers in order to determine
authenticity in the performance.

Authentic Cuban Dance

Touristic performance in Cuba concentrates on cultural accuracy and,
therefore, traditional dance is the norm. US tourists have rarely been
encouraged to visit Cuba, but Canadians, Europeans, Japanese, and
many Central and South Americans have had opportunities to observe
and participate in Cuban touristic dance performance. Such visits have
788 TOURISM DANCE PERFORMANCES

involved educational conferences, political congresses, healthcare

seminars, and music and dance workshops. These are special-interest
visits in comparison to recreational, leisure tourism as suggested in the
Haitian cases. As a result, fantasized, exotic dance or extravaganza
performance has not been emphasized in Cuba until recently.
Since the demise of the Soviet Union, the US press has been report-
ing the severe economic tensions that exist in Cuba (Appleby 1994;
Brickel 1994; NBCs Good Morning Special on Cuba in 1992; Rice 1992)
and economists have presented analysis of present conditions and
future possibilities that impact change in Cuban tourism practices
(Levine 1983; Zimbalist 1987). These reports and Cuban fieldwork
data indicate that extravaganza dance performance (primarily
concerned with entertainment values) has been limited to a few
hotels and nightclubs (most importantly, Tropicana in Havana) and
an eco-cultural paradigm for the Cuban tourism industry has been
used. Now, however, more commercial, economically-oriented tourism
is on the rise and traditional dance performance in Cuban tourism
settings is in critical competition with extravaganza acts. It may be
that the latter will have increased opportunities and that traditional
dance performance, which has been more prevalent and still
dominant until 1995, will take a less prominent role in the future.
For the present analysis, however, many special visitors to Cuba
become acquainted with Cuban culture through sabados de la rumba
(Rumba Saturdays). Th ese are performance events that entertain,
but more importantly, that educate both tourists and Cubans
through short lectures and dance/music demonstrations. Every other
Saturday in Havana and Matanzas (less frequently in other touristm
areas like Santiago de Cuba and Pinar de1 Rio), both international
and domestic tourists are invited to participate in Cuban dance.
Domestic educational efforts of the Ministry of Culture, which were
originally organized to educate Cubans, have been extended to inter-
national tourists (Daniel 1991, 1995:61-62, 126-127).
Special visitors, tourists or guests in Cuba, experience local dance
in an outdoor patio setting with live music and dance specialists. The
dance, rumba, is prominent at sabado de la rumba since the word itself
means a gathering with music, dance, food, drinks, and socializing;
however, other dances such as chancleta, danzon, casino (Cuban salsa),
tumbajancesa, and dances from religious communities (e.g., Yoruba,
Palo, or Arara) are performed. During rumba events, tourists are
invited to participate in the dancing, singing, and, on occasion,
drinking and eating. These are efforts to actively engage tourists in
genuine Cuban culture as opposed to simply viewing a vivid sense of
the authentic (Hanna 1983). But experiential authenticity is even
more pronounced, as in the Haitian case, both where Cuban spirit
dancing (Yoruba, Bantu, and Arara, or Dahomey traditions) is
simulated and where Cuban masked dance performance (Abakua
tradition) creates tremendous interest and awe among tourists.
Experiential authenticity also occurs within secular dance perfor-
mance of rumba. After professionals demonstrate one of the three
types of rumba, for example, they usually invite non-professionals to
dance. First, Cuban audience members begin to dance and challenge
 YVONNE DANIEL 789

performance practices, but eventually tourists are encouraged to try.

The playful interactions initially between dancers, but inevitably,
between tourists and Cubans, overshadow social differences between
old and young, highly or barely educated, dark or light-skinned, and
even skilled or unskilled. Social interconnectedness grows within the
actual movements and sequences of communal dance; diversity
diminishes and degrees of stratification temporarily blur in a world
that has eliminated everyday realities and tensions. In Handler and
Saxtons terms, the world is then experienced as a first-person
narrative and the tourist as well as the performer feels a different
self-a connected, integrated, and real self.
Tourists and performers are immersed in a complex of multiple,
simultaneous sensory stimulations in Cuban touristic performances.
On occasions, tourists are disinterested and some are offended by
the sensual play, but most are attracted and engaged sufficiently to
watch until the dance event ends. Many tourists are drawn into
participation by the amiable feelings, sociability, and the musical and
kinesthetic elements of dance performance. Often, not knowing the
rules, they do not wait to be invited to dance, but spontaneously join
in. They explore their rhythmic, harmonic, and physical potential
and arrive at sensations of well-being, pleasure, joy, or fun, and at
times, frustration as well.
As tourists associate these sentiments with dancing, the dance
performance transforms their reality. For many tourists, the dance
becomes their entire world at that particular moment. Time and
tensions are suspended. The discrepancies of the real world are
postponed. As performing dancers, tourists access the magical world
of liminality which offers spiritual and aesthetic nourishment
(Daniel 1990; Turner and Bruner 1986; Turner and Turner 1978).
Tourism, in moments of dance performance, opens the door to a
liminal world that gives relief from day-to-day, ordinary tensions,
and, for Cuban dancers and dancing tourists particularly, permits
indulgence in near-ecstatic experiences (Graburn 1989).
The same experience is described by Cuban performers: It (the
dancing) fills me up. I am really full. I cant explain, but something
special happens. When I dance in performance with the drums, and
the music, something real comes out-something genuine, authentic,
more organic and pure than what I know is in the tradition. My
gestures are free.... All the possibilities are there, movements are
creative, beautiful, corporeal, and enriching the dance.... Someone,
some other actor inside me makes those movements-those other
things--come out when I really dance. It is experiental authenticity
within the dance performance, described here, that ignites and
secures authenticity for tourists as well. It is experiential authentic-
ity that is expressed after an act by performers themselves through
tears, audible groans, heads nodding no, no, or slapping high lives.

Creativity in Touristic Dance Performance

Touristic dance performance can be viewed as somewhat limited
in terms of artistic creativity; at least this is a first assumption.
790 TOURISM DANCE PERFORMANCES

Creativity is limited by the structure of tourist time and adminis-

trative programing, but also by the structuring or manipulation of
form. Set traditional, conventional, or formulaic choreography is
officially promoted to accommodate the touristic setting and often,
with continuous repetition, creates performance death.
Experiential authenticity may be difficult to sustain over time.
(Again, overlap accompanies the dichotomy between authenticity
and creativity.)
Spontaneity and creativity keep dance traditions alive and well.
They militate against routinization or performance death, which
are thought to be more common in touristic settings than in the
lively dynamics of both the Haitian and Cuban dance performances
described above. With a shift from performance by participants to
public show for outsiders (or the routinized performance for
tourists), the spontaneity of public involvement and the creativity in
communal effort that were seminal to particular dance events are
often diminished or transposed. Here, for example, one can compare
spectator with participatory forms of Cuban carnival (Evleshin 1989)
alongside versions of Philippine sinulog (Ness 1992). Touristic
dance performance is often presumed weak in comparison to sponta-
neous acts for community members.

Creative Touristic Dance Performance in Senegal

A distressing case (because it is complicated by other more worri-
some issues beyond creativity) is found in reports of dance in Dakar,
Senegal, known as the Paris of Africa due to its international
ambience within Africa and its potential for profits from tourism.
For 1991-92, two dance students from the University of
Massachusetts studied and danced professionally with masters and
companies that regularly perform for tourists (Ahmed 1992;
Greenberg 1993). Both agreed that the touristic setting provided
little more than regular employment for young high-school dropouts,
moments of exoticized and eroticized entertainment for primarily
non-African tourists, and, apparently, prestige, money, and sexual
access to company directors and administrators. However, their
findings in the Dakar situation indicate more than adequate oppor-
tunities and effective results in terms of creativity, and these data
are comparable to the Haitian and Cuban cases.
There is an eager audience of international tourists and long-term
foreign workers in Dakar who desire dance performance and support
a range of creative efforts that have been put up for sale as local
and national culture. The Dakar setting indicates that European and
American dance have little appeal to the mostly European and
American tourists. Senegalese dance that conforms to a popular idea
of Africanness is what is in demand and what is offered. This
means that dance steps and sequences from myriad cultures
comprising Senegalese society are more than generalized, being
placed together creatively. Multicultural fragments from Senegalese
dance traditions are arranged into new choreographic representa-
tions, called ballets. All movements are modernized, made bigger
 YVONNE DANIEL 791

and less subtle than traditional dance patterns, and staged with a
sense of spectacular entertainment. The reports note that young
dancers were helping to perpetuate images of wild, uninhibited,
sexual, dark-skinned Africans and that young women, particularly,
were subjects of eroticized and exoticized dance commoditization
(cf. Carty 1993 on Caribbean women as commodities in tourism
enterprises).
Because the University of Massachusetts students were shocked
that real or authentic Senegalese culture was not presented in
dance performance, and since the situation in terms of womens
rights and survival was even more upsetting, they did not attend
fully to the issue of creativity. They knew that the choreographed
ballets were essentially intra-traditional mixtures (i.e., combinations
of several forms and many traditional movements, steps, and
sequences), and that several master dancers were in competition for
styling and staging touristic dance performances, and their height-
ened sensibilities to cultural authenticity reigned. In terms of
creativity, however, the dances that they thought to be deterio-
rated and bastardized were filled also with ingenuity and inven-
tiveness, as is much developed choreography that is based on
traditional elements, such as the Haitian and West African patterns
(called muyi in Haiti) that are at the base of Alvin Aileys solo chore-
ography for Judith Jamison in Revelations: Wade in the Water; the
Russian squat kicks developed within Folkines Petroushka; the
abstracted folk steps in Martha Grahams Appalachian Spring; or
the waltzs and mazurkas placed directly in Isadora Duncans
Classical Duet and The Mazurka. This is also typical of most, if
not a great many, staged traditional dance performances of the 80s
and 90s that have been presented to US audiences by Hawaiian,
Cambodian, Yupik (Eskimo), Congolese, Cuban, Russian, and US
Americans (cf. Williams 1994).

Creative Touristic Dance in Haiti and Cuba

Other examples of creativity within commoditized dance perfor-
mance can be found in both Alan Goldbergs (1981) account of
staged Vodun performances and in similar performances witnessed
by the author during trips to Haiti and Cuba. Haitian tourism enter-
prises have often utilized dance performance in creative, innovative
ways. In the example used earlier of the almost nude version of the
Haitian spider dance, zarien, the presentation disregarded the wise
and playful character of the folkloric spider in Haitian culture.
Instead, the spider dance referenced another equally recognizable
and important part of Haitian culture, the Guede family of Vodun
spirits. In the eclipse of one cultural aspect for another, an example
of Haitian creativity is revealed. It was an original, inventive chore-
ography that accentuated the bare starkness, fluidity, and speed of
a spider as Vodun seductress. More current choreographies depict
market scenes, inter-relationships in Haitian life, virtuoso displays
of drumming, etc., and connect transitions and choreographic
concepts with integrity and professionalism. Haitian touristic dance
792 TOURISM DANCE PERFORMANCES

performance of years ago represents more of an extravaganza style,

while dance performance today, particularly at Hotel Oloffson,
seems decidedly creative. The intention, to represent Haitian
culture through dance in a more conscious and respectful manner,
does not inhibit the creative aspects of the performances.
In looking at Cubas tourism environment in terms of creativity,
creativity within dance form and creativity within individual dancers
must be distinguished. Again, authenticity is emphasized. Usually,
structured forms in Cuba (i.e., separate dance traditions like rumba,
Yoruba, and Abakua) are replicated in a reduced time frame and in
a different space from ordinary performance, and creativity is
presumed limited. For example, in the Cuban dance, rumba, impro-
visation form is its ultimate expression (i.e., the unpredictable
movement inventions of a particular dancer, the unrehearsed inter-
actions among dancers and between dancers and musicians, and the
spontaneous inspiration from a singer). Improvisational elements
such as these that comprise the form are officially limited in the
organization of Cuban touristic performance and mixing distinct
dance traditions or potentially changing the form is avoided
officially.
When concentrating on creativity within the dancers themselves
as opposed to creativity strictly within the dance form, the Cuban
touristic setting illustrates another serious consideration in the
analysis of the politico-economic environment of the tourist setting
(Silver 1981). For Cuban dancers and musicians, the touristic setting
is peculiar and important because in their politico-economic environ-
ment, artistic content has been channeled and artistic mediums have
been restricted; surprisingly, the tourism environment widens
channels of access and releases artists to experience artistic freedom
more fully.
Cuban artists are appreciative of the regular employment they
receive through tourism (although they express frustration when
performance becomes too routine). They, like artists everywhere,
need regularity of performance for financial security, but also in
terms of technique and practice. Much like North American jazz
musicians who must play casuals (e.g., in weddings and barmitz-
vas) to augment their earnings, but who play wholeheartedly in a
jazz atmosphere or who are deliriously involved when playing with
or singing in an orchestra, Cuban musicians in the tourism environ-
ment have opportunities amid many routine performances to
become fully involved, fully engaged. They are additionally stimu-
lated (by experiential authenticity) toward purposeful expressive-
ness as they interact with other dancers, musicians, and the
participating public, particularly with foreign tourists. Through
sharing and jamming within planned touristic performances,
Cuban artists augment their opportunities to experiment and create
even when restricted officially.
Among dancers, jamming occurs in brief, but often signifi-
cant, moments of tourist interaction. Officially, Cuban profes-
sional dancers are trained to separate dance traditions and to
avoid all synthesis of movement materials. Through common
 YVONNE DANIEL 793

Cuban touristic settings, such as international workshops, festi-

vals, and concerts, professional dancers are provided with periodic
and sometimes extended contact with foreign artistic conceptu-
alization, contemporary trends, and novel ideas. Cuban dancers
use these venues as opportunities for conceptual inspiration and
development, and for creativity in choreography and perfor-
mance. In using the freedom afforded as new stimuli, they are
drawn into the special world that tourists experience, experien-
tial authenticity, where they suspend the routineness of their
work and intimately release themselves in creative performance
(cf. Daniel 1990, 1996; Turner and Bruner 1986; cf. liminality
and communitas of Turner and Turner 1978).
Tourists are also responsible for creativity in the performer; they
inadvertently stimulate creativity, For example, because tourists do
not usually know the rules thoroughly, they are often indulged when
they mistakenly cross boundaries, by dancing their versions or
imitations of dance sequences and traditions, by entering a dance
form that prohibits certain personnel, and by not following the
musical or gestural leads. These mishaps and the responding
behavior that attempts to make the guest feel safe and free from
embarrassment, allow spontaneity and improvisation to flow, facili-
tating creativity, When on stage with performing tourists who are
simultaneously in process of creating, Cuban dancers can experi-
ment with variation, indulge in mixtures among dance traditions,
and ultimately create.
Batarumba is one major example of creativity within the touristic
setting. But, perhaps more importantly, this dance creation illus-
trates further the important influence of the social setting, namely
the politico-economic environment of the touristic setting. For
several years after the Cuban revolution, sacred drum rhythms and
dances were avoided in public because of the secular ideology of the
Castro government. Touristic settings, however, included the impor-
tant display (regarded as cultural rather than religious) of
Yoruba chants and rhythms, Palo and Arara dances, and Abakua
ceremonial re-enactments. Over time, some of the Yoruba religious
gestures, chants, and rhythms have been placed in combination with
secular rumba songs and drumming and batarumba, a Cuban
creation, has emerged (or perhaps has resurfaced as Andy Gonzalez
suggests in Boggs 1992:295).
Batarumba is a creolization by means of its instrumental and gestu-
ral content that combines (plays together) drum rhythms that are
usually confined to more sacred contexts with those of more secular
contexts. It further combines the corresponding movement patterns
from both sacred and secular contexts as well. The meshing of three
dance traditions (Yoruba, casino, and rumba) with two music tradi-
tions (bath and rumba) creates a novel, fresh dance/music perfor-
mance. However, it was through the emphasis on touristic dance
performance that religious drum rhythms and dances were devel-
oped as source materials for the creation of a new form. It was the
Cuban tourism of the 80s that provided the time and ambience
where artists were freed for expression, where such creativity could
794 TOURISM DANCE PERFORMANCES

gain momentum and acceptance, thus underscoring the importance

of the social conditions of the touristic setting for the analysis of
creativity.

CONCLUSIONS
Touristic settings are ambiguous in terms of dance performance.
On the one hand, their goal is the replication or simulation of the
set, conventionalized structure of a dance tradition or style. On the
other hand, they provide the space and time for that same dance
structure to evolve and change. In tourism, time is condensed to
fit the economic interests of entrepreneurs as well as the concen-
tration time limits of tourists. Space is decorated with elaborate
costumes and designed stage sets that project specific visual
images. Dance forms are condensed structurally and improvised
sections of accompanying music are shortened or replaced by set
or through-composed lyrics. Rather than spontaneous improvisa-
tion or short, limited intra-traditional variation, which generally
occur in ordinary social settings, specific songs and dances are
programed in touristic settings that often generalize myriad
cultures within a given society. Differently cultivated voices (voices
trained according to different cultural norms) and technique-
oriented bodies (bodies exhibiting training from other cultural
milieus) can often accompany electronic and non-traditional
instrumentation. The professional arena of the stage or
theater-patio limits distractions and crystallizes preferred
messages in dramatic, poignant presentations. These images
suggest exquisite, elegant, exotic, and sometimes unrealistic
visions of life among the carriers of many dance traditions, often
deemed unauthentic and not creative.
Using the cultural conventions and artistic patterns that are at
the core of the social group from which the dance traditions stems,
however, both performers and tourists are often able to experience
authenticity bodily and thereby, simultaneously express authenticity
and creativity. The intensity and energy exhibited in the resulting
dance performance secures authenticity and creativity within the
touristic setting through the culmination of differing qualities of
movement and through the profound experience within the
performer while dancing.
Therefore, the experience of performing, especially the experience
of dancing, is ultimately a route toward genuineness: that space and
time where the energy within a dance performance deepens from a
routine presentation to a more intense and intensely experienced
performance by both the performer and the viewer. This experien-
tial authenticity, as clarified by Handler and Saxton (1988), further
explains authenticity and creativity in dance performance for
tourists. Both the audience and performers can identify perfor-
mances that are more genuine, or profoundly experienced, than
routine re-enactments of dance traditions.
The study of dance in touristic settings restates the power
within this multisensory and ephemeral phenomenon called
 YVONNE DANIEL 795

dance. It forces a re-examination of definitions of authentic

and creative in terms of performers as well as tourists and
analysts. It demands the careful consideration of both multiple
aspects of dance performance and a balance of the data within the
dancing body, the setting, and the larger social circumstances of
dance performance. Cl 0

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Submitted 8 April 1994

Resubmitted 29 April 1995
Accepted 6 September 1995
Refereed anonymously
Coordinating Editor: Deirdre Evans-Pritchard