In the Shadow of Petrouchka: Constructions of Identity in the Work of Anna Pavlova, La Argentina, and Katherine Dunham

Resumen

This paper will examine efforts of Anna Pavlova, La Argentina (Antonia Mercé), and Katherine Dunham to use folk and vernacular movement to create modernist narratives of national and cultural identity. Critics have noted the many connections that existed between Pavlova and La Argentina. Both were divas, adored by the public, with La Argentina frequently referred to as «the other Pavlova» or the «Pavlova of Spanish dance». Preeminently solo artists, although both founded companies, they embarked on tours that took them to the four corners of the world. Although considerably younger, Katherine Dunham shared many of the qualities that distinguished the other two. In Chicago, where she lived from 1928 until 1940, she saw Argentina perform and studied with teachers who had danced with Pavlova. By 1937, when she created her first «ballet», L’Ag’Ya, her performances followed the structure of theirs, featuring at least one longer narrative work along with short dances that often spotlighted a particular form. Like both Pavlova and La Argentina, Dunham headed a company of her own creation, traveled the world to great acclaim, and was a diva —this at a time when racial segregation was the rule in most walks of American life. Dunham’s debt to La Argentina remains unacknowledged. Yet the latter’s repertory —mining folkloric, flamenco, and classical Spanish dance forms and performing them on a single program—may well have represented an idea of national identity as inspirational as the African diasporic identity that Dunham sought to represent in her own repertory.