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Congo's Dancers : Women and Work in Kinshasa by Lesley Nicole Braun (2023, Hardcover)

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Format: Hardback or Cased Book. Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press. Your source for quality books at reduced prices. Publication Date: 1/24/2023.

About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherUniversity of Wisconsin Press

ISBN-100299340309

ISBN-139780299340308

eBay Product ID (ePID)24057234199

Product Key Features

Number of Pages216 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameCongo's Dancers : Women and Work in Kinshasa

Publication Year2023

SubjectGender Studies, General, Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Africa / Central

TypeTextbook

AuthorLesley Nicole Braun

Subject AreaSports & Recreation, Social Science, History

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.7 in

Item Weight15.2 Oz

Item Length9.4 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2022-022452

Reviews"A brilliant study of the dynamics of gender, labor, and respectability. Drawing on deep fieldwork, Lesley Braun poignantly shows how the dilemmas that professional female dancers face--of being highly visible and yet respectable--offer a lens through which to analyze the double binds that characterize women's lives more broadly. . . . Essential reading for anyone interested in gender, performance, and contemporary social change."--Jennifer Cole, University of Chicago, "An excellent contribution. . . . It offers new insights into women's creativity, embodiment, pleasure, and agency within inequitable gender and class systems."-- International Journal of African Historical Studies, "A highly original and compelling work of ethnography. The role of urban women in the production of popular culture often tends to be overlooked and undervalued, and Braun's study of female concert dancers in Kinshasa, the beating heart of much of the musical world in Congo, the African continent, and beyond, makes a substantial contribution to fill in this lacuna. Through a refreshing lens of dance as reflective of social form, her lively prose offers innovative insights on the importance of female agency in refashioning gendered boundaries within the context of one of Africa's most iconic urban settings."-Filip De Boeck, coauthor of Suturing the City: Living Together in Congo's Urban Worlds "Braun's study comes as a unique and innovative contribution to our understanding of Kinshasa as a kinetic cityscape that dizzies itself in its perpetual gyrations and metamorphoses. By locating women dancers at the center of Kinshasa's vortex-like ambiance, Braun's fine-grained narrative does more than just render these performers visible and agentive; it disrupts and shakes up staid notions of gender configurations, femininity, and the economy of the affect."-Ch. Didier Gondola, author of Tropical Cowboys: Westerns, Violence, and Masculinity in Kinshasa "A brilliant study of the dynamics of gender, labor, and respectability. Drawing on deep fieldwork, Lesley Braun poignantly shows how the dilemmas that professional female dancers face-of being highly visible and yet respectable-offer a lens through which to analyze the double binds that characterize women's lives more broadly. Essential reading for anyone interested in gender, performance, and contemporary social change."-Jennifer Cole, University of Chicago, "Braun's study comes as a unique and innovative contribution to our understanding of Kinshasa as a kinetic cityscape that dizzies itself in its perpetual gyrations and metamorphoses. By locating women dancers at the center of Kinshasa's vortex-like ambiance, Braun's fine-grained narrative does more than just render these performers visible and agentive; it disrupts and shakes up staid notions of gender configurations, femininity, and the economy of the affect."--Ch. Didier Gondola, author of Tropical Cowboys: Westerns, Violence, and Masculinity in Kinshasa, "A highly original and compelling work of ethnography. The role of urban women in the production of popular culture often tends to be overlooked and undervalued, and Braun's study of female concert dancers in Kinshasa, the beating heart of much of the musical world in Congo, the African continent, and beyond, makes a substantial contribution to fill in this lacuna. Through a refreshing lens of dance as reflective of social form, her lively prose offers innovative insights on the importance of female agency in refashioning gendered boundaries within the context of one of Africa's most iconic urban settings."--Filip De Boeck, coauthor of Suturing the City: Living Together in Congo's Urban Worlds, "Like its topic, Braun's writing is highly entertaining thanks to her thoroughly selected ethnographic vignettes and embodied exposure to the realities of the danseuse. It is a must read."-- Journal of Modern African Studies

Dewey Decimal306.4/84609675112

Table Of ContentList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 Women and Dance in Congo's Modern History Chapter 2 Overlapping Tempos Chapter 3 Dance Formations Chapter 4 From Containment to Entrapment Chapter 5 Working through Encadrement Coda Notes Bibliography Index

SynopsisDance music plays a central role in the cultural, social, religious, and family lives of the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Among the various genres popular in the capital city of Kinshasa, Congolese rumba occupies a special place and can be counted as one of the DRC's most well-known cultural exports. The public image of rumba was historically dominated by male bandleaders, singers, and musicians. However, with the introduction of the danseuse (professional concert dancer) in the late 1970s, the role of women as cultural, moral, and economic actors came into public prominence and helped further raise Congolese rumba's international profile. In Congo's Dancers , Lesley Nicole Braun uses the prism of the Congolese danseuse to examine the politics of control and the ways in which notions of visibility, virtue, and socio-economic opportunity are interlinked in this urban African context. The work of the danseuse highlights the fact that public visibility is necessary to build the social networks required for economic independence, even as this visibility invites social opprobrium for women. The concert dancer therefore exemplifies many of the challenges that women face in Kinshasa as they navigate the public sphere, and she illustrates the gendered differences of local patronage politics that shape public morality. As an ethnographer, Braun had unusual access to the world she documents, having been invited to participate as a concert dancer herself., Dance music plays a central role in the cultural, social, religious, and family lives of the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Among the various genres popular in the capital city of Kinshasa, Congolese rumba occupies a special place and can be counted as one of the DRC's most well-known cultural exports. The public image of rumba was historically dominated by male bandleaders, singers, and musicians. However, with the introduction of the danseuse (professional concert dancer) in the late 1970s, the role of women as cultural, moral, and economic actors came into public prominence and helped further raise Congolese rumba's international profile. In Congo's Dancers, Lesley Nicole Braun uses the prism of the Congolese danseuse to examine the politics of control and the ways in which notions of visibility, virtue, and socio-economic opportunity are interlinked in this urban African context. The work of the danseuse highlights the fact that public visibility is necessary to build the social networks required for economic independence, even as this visibility invites social opprobrium for women. The concert dancer therefore exemplifies many of the challenges that women face in Kinshasa as they navigate the public sphere, and she illustrates the gendered differences of local patronage politics that shape public morality. As an ethnographer, Braun had unusual access to the world she documents, having been invited to participate as a concert dancer herself., Dance music plays a central role in the cultural, social, religious, and family lives of the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Among the various genres popular in the capital city of Kinshasa, Congolese rumba occupies a special place and can be counted as one of the DRC's most well-known cultural exports. The public image of rumba ......

LC Classification NumberGV1713.C66B73 2023