The recent succession of protests and uprisings following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of (now former) Minneapolis police officers overwhelmingly included dance as a protest tactic. While dancers have long engaged in cultural acts of resistance, this iteration in the #blacklivesmatter movement stemmed directly from the efforts of dancers/activists who participated in the protests following the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Ezell Ford, and Michael Brown. Dancer/activist/scholar/mother Shamell Bell deemed “Street Dance Activism” as a protest tool to celebrate Black Joy in the face of Black death, and renowned dance scholar Brenda Dixon-Gottschild has noted how such actions have gained increasing visibility over the last decade.
This Special Issue of the IASPM Journal aims to gather a broad range of scholarly and artistic perspectives on the topic of dance and protest, and the ways in which they interrelate, overlap, intertwine, and bolster political expression. We invite submissions that assess dance in relation to historical movements for social justice and grapple with questions related to how dance and music amplify each other within the framework of protests. We invite case studies that examine how dance is used at protests to enhance a political message, facilitate a call to action, unite people in solidarity, as well as examples of viral dances used for political means. We are interested in how protests themselves can be examined as a form of performance, and the potential limitations of performance as protest, especially when not linked to organized struggle.