Salsa and Its Transnational Moves

by Sheenagh Pietrobruno

Overview

Salsa and Its Transnational Moves presents a brilliant critical analysis of salsa dancing in a major North American city. Drawing from a vast number of disciplines, author Sheenagh Pietrobruno focuses on the tension between the status of dance as a bodily expression of identity and its function as a cultural commodity within the economic life of modern day cities. This engaging work investigates the transnational movements of salsa by exploring the circulation of salsa within the Montreal dance scene, nourished by the continuous flow of a people, and examining the commodification of the Latino culture. Pietrobruno's analysis is singular in highlighting how the migration of a people and a dance represent displacements that are not always homologous. At the core of this work, Pietrobruno offers an extensive and intricate ethnography of the institutions and individuals involved in shaping the Montreal salsa scene that will appeal to academics and general audiences alike, who are interested in the study of anthropology, popular music, dance, gender, ethnicity, and culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739114681
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/15/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Sheenagh Pietrobruno is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: Toward the Global
Chapter 2 Beyond Caribbean Roots
Chapter 3 Transnational Identities and Multicultural Connections
Chapter 4 Staking Claims
Chapter 5 The Couple in Dance
Chapter 6 Commodifying the Gendered Embrace
Chapter 7 Conclusion: Virtual Migrations

Editorial Reviews

This splendid book captures salsa dancing as both a global phenomenon, carried throughout the world by migrants and media technologies, and as a local practice, rooted deeply in the distinct cultures of different cities. Pietrobruno deftly combines richethnographic observation with a well-researched account of salsa's origins, development and ongoing transformations. The book moves towards a compelling engagement with dance's place in a world of digital communications and within what Pietrobruno callsvirtual migrations. This is a genuinely interdisciplinary book, one which will interest scholars of dance, diasporic cultural practice, media and popular music...

William Straw

This splendid book captures salsa dancing as both a global phenomenon, carried throughout the world by migrants and media technologies, and as a local practice, rooted deeply in the distinct cultures of different cities. Pietrobruno deftly combines rich ethnographic observation with a well-researched account of salsa's origins, development and ongoing transformations. The book moves towards a compelling engagement with dance's place in a world of digital communications and within what Pietrobruno calls "virtual migrations." This is a genuinely interdisciplinary book, one which will interest scholars of dance, diasporic cultural practice, media and popular music.--William Straw, James McGill Professor of Urban Media Studies, McGill University

From the Publisher