NARRATIVE AND AESTHETIC REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER IN MALLORQUIN DANCE

This paper explores how oral transmissions of dance have influenced the stylistic qualities and socio-cultural contexts of performing Mallorquin dance. The development of dance in two distinct styles and repertoires on the Mallorcan island parallels the establishment of tourism with the organization Fomento del Turismo de Mallorca (Promotion of Tourism) in 1905. I question if aesthetic principles derived from oral transmissions of dance and myths from past historical events enhance the kinetic qualities of movement in the present, or do they restrict their social development? What effect, for example, does tourism impart on narratives of gender roles of men and women's embodied representations of Mallorquin dance?