Conference presentation at UMD

Kate Spanos will present her paper, “Dancing the Archive: Rhythms of the Black and Green in Montserrat’s Masquerade Dance” at the University of Maryland’s Latin American Studies Center annual student conference, on the theme of “Hybridity: Examining Processes of Circulation, Collaboration, and Conflict.”

Abstract:
I will present ethnographic research about Montserrat’s masquerade dance, a tradition that has been recontextualized over the island’s history of cultural development. Montserrat is unique because of its small population of 5,000, but far-reaching transatlantic connections—as a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean West Indies, and with historical Irish and African diasporic connections. Their masquerade dance dates back to the colonial/slave era of the 18th century, and it has been described as a dance of rebellion and resistance against Anglo-Irish slave masters that hybridizes African rhythms with Irish dance steps. Today, the masquerades have evolved into an often-contradictory performance of national identity during the post-traumatic redevelopment period, following a volcanic crisis in the 1990s that led to mass displacement, emigration, and questions of cultural identity.

I will discuss how the cultural knowledge that is embedded in the rhythms and movements of the masquerades contributes to the (re)construction of national narratives, as well as challenges individual interpretations of cultural identities on the island. I draw on Diana Taylor’s notion of archive and repertoire (2003) to question how the masquerade dance provides an archive that is itself intangible and performative—reframed and repurposed across space and time—when place and materiality are threatened by cultural trauma and natural disaster. In my research, I focus on how the masquerade dance relates to the island’s often- debated “triangular” hybrid heritage of Irishness, Africanness, and Montserratianness, especially as it is performed during their St. Patrick’s Festival in March. Through this lens, I question who creates Montserrat’s archive, for whom it is created, and who has the authority to change, impact, or resist that archive.

(Presentation will include a short interactive demonstration to allow audience members to embody Irish vs. African elements of Montserrat’s masquerade dance)