Od seljaštva do čovječanstva: Ples kao nematerijalna kulturna baština (Dance as Intangible Cultural Heritage)

This book examines the gradual processes of recontextualizing, folklorizing, heritagizing, and choreographing dance in Macedonia, Serbia, and Croatia, and in the Former Yugoslavia in more general terms. In order to demonstrate how dance becomes intangible cultural heritage, the author combines UNESCO archival materials with ethnographic research and interviews with dancers, choreographers, and heritage experts. While he traces how the discourses around folklore and intangible cultural heritage were used in the construction of the Yugoslav, and later in the post-Yugoslav nation states, he also writes about the hegemonic relationship between dance and institutions. Dance is emphasized as a vehicle for mediating ideas around authenticity, distinctiveness, and national identity, while also acknowledging how the UNESCO process of safeguarding and listing culture allows countries such as Macedonia, Serbia, and Croatia to achieve international recognition. By studying the relationship between dance, archives, and UNESCO conventions, we can understand the intersection between institutions and issues around nationalism, but also how discourses of dance shifted dance production and reception in various historical and political contexts during and after the existence of the Yugoslav state. In the first chapter, the author explores the creation of the folkloric discourse and the processes of constructing national archives, based on fears of disappearing culture amidst of modernization. He also elaborates on the institutionalization of dance through folklore research and the emergence of specific methods of study that conceptualized social dances as of national importance. In the second chapter, he discusses the transformation of the archive into a choreographed repertoire that depicts issues around authenticity, exoticism, and stylization. He shows the development of amateur and professional dance ensembles that were responsible for popularizing dance as heritage and further demonstrates how heritage is safeguarded through performance. Finally, in the third chapter, the author uncovers the bureaucratic process through which dance becomes intangible cultural heritage. He demonstrates how through the process of heritagization, dance becomes both a commodity and a medium through which post-Yugoslav nation states can market their cultures in a global arena and affirm their national identities.