Queer Beats: Dance, Performance, and the Body in Contemporary Dominican Music

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Although the Dominican Republic is highly viewed as a patriarchal, machista nation, the typical gender roles attributed to either males or females have seen in the past two decades a profound yet nuanced shift in their representations in dance, performance (music videos, live concerts, etc.), and the body. This panel seeks to shed light on various musical and performatic manifestations that we see as a display of queer Dominicanidad. On the one hand, Verónica Dávila’s intervention analyzes the ways in which the contemporary alternative music fusions performed by electronic music trio MULA queers traditional sonic repertoires and opens space to reimagine new ways of being queer in the Caribbean, while Dr. Angelina Tallaj will look at how Dominican dembow foregrounds the theme of same-sex desire and sexual identity in contradictory ways that oppose that of its closer rhythm, Jamaican dancehall, known for its outright homophobia. Finally, Wilfredo Burgos will argue that Afro-Dominican spiritual practices, its music (e.g. “palo” and “gagá”) and dance have become spaces of queer embodiments enacted by male practitioners through the spiritual presence of goddesses of voodoo such as Anaísa and Saint Martha The Dominator. By providing an interdisciplinary scope that ranges from Literature, Ethnomusicology, Sound, Performance and Queer Studies, each presentation inquires into three different music practices that will allow a discussion of the myriad ways in which Dominican music and dance performances actively rethink queerness.

Sub Track

• Sexualities and LGBTQ Studies

Session Organizer

• Wilfredo J Burgos-Matos, The University of Texas at Austin

Chair

• Angelina M Tallaj, Guttman Community College

Discussant

• Danny Méndez, Michigan State University

Individual Presentations

• Queer Shadings of Masculinity in Dominican Dembow Music and Videos - Angelina M Tallaj, Guttman Community College

• Queer Fusions in the Dominican Alternative Music Scene - Veronica E Davila

• "Viene bajando Anaísa Pye": Queer Embodiments in Afro-Dominican Music and Dance - Wilfredo J Burgos-Matos, The University of Texas at Austin