Abstract

This article considers the stakes articulated by French-speaking West African women who claim dance as work opens up critical perspectives on the global political economy of concert dance. African states encouraged creative dance work following independence, but in the era of structural adjustment, French state-affiliated institutions took the lead as foreign patrons for African contemporary dance. Juxtaposing these women’s reflections on their trajectories as dance artists with an account of the institutional politics surrounding patronage in the region, I argue that these women reenvision the value of cultural labor as a substantive contribution to their societies and economies in West Africa.

摘要

本文考虑了讲法语的西非妇女所表达的利害关系，她们声称舞蹈是一种工作，为音乐会舞蹈的全球政治经济开辟了批判性视角。非洲国家在独立后鼓励创造性的舞蹈工作，但在结构调整时代，法国国家附属机构率先成为非洲当代舞蹈的外国赞助人。将这些女性对她们作为舞蹈艺术家的轨迹的反思与对该地区赞助的制度政治的描述并列，我认为这些女性重新将文化劳动的价值视为对她们在西非的社会和经济的实质性贡献。