Description:

This presentation discusses how dance became a public good in Cuba in the late 1960s and 1970s. Dance leaders spearheaded a popularization campaign, which consisted of developing a nationwide system of dance schools, as well as creating an informed public through dance appreciation initiatives. As a result of these efforts, hundreds of thousands of Cubans danced and watched dance, consolidating Cuba's reputation as an island of dancing publics.

Elizabeth Schwall (Ph.D. History, Columbia University, 2016) is a Mellon Dance Studies in/and the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow, appointed with the Department of History and the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities. Her interdisciplinary research and teaching combines History and Dance Studies to shed new light on the physical movements that animated daily life, politics, and intellectual inquiry in Latin America and the Caribbean. Her book manuscript, Political Moves: Dance and Power in Revolutionary Cuba, examines dance as revolutionary politics, labor, and entertainment in Cuba from 1930 to 1990. Her broader research interests include Mexican History, Brazilian History, Latin American performance, Cold War cultural diplomacy, and the histories of migration and community building through art.