Toward a salsa dancing hegemony: dancing-with Laclau with-Derrida

ABSTRACT

In the present article, the first section recapitulates my ‘figuration’ philosophy of dance, the ‘dancing-with’ interpretive method derived therefrom, and my previous application of figuration to salsa dance as a decolonizing gestural discourse. The second section deepens and modifies this analysis through a reinterpretation of Argentinian philosopher Ernesto Laclau’s concept of hegemony and his dance-resonant interpretations of Derrida. And, the final section offers a template for this hegemonic dancing-with in the Birmingham, Alabama Latin dance troupe, Corazon de Alabama (Heart of Alabama), as a new strategy for decolonizing and reconstructing social justice.

KEYWORDS:

• Ernesto Laclau
• Jacques Derrida
• hegemony
• decolonization
• Afro-Latin dance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.