Dancing through Difference

Abstract This chapter explores the diffusion of West African dance in Italy and its reception in relation to the country’s history of racial formation and racial ambiguity. Around the turn of the twenty-first century, traditional dancing and drumming associated with ethnic groups and practices from West Africa became increasingly widespread in Italy, growing in tandem with local West African diasporic communities and the corresponding national fear and anxiety over migration. The circulation of West African dancing and drumming created a distinct economy of classes, workshops, concerts, festivals, and cultural trips to Africa engaging practitioners and audiences across diverse demography in terms of class, age, profession, and ability. At the same time, it created a substantial network of artists with transnational connections to other African artists in Europe and the African continent. However, the reception of West African dances was embedded in problematic discourses that drew upon colonialist racialized imaginaries. In order to trace the spread of African dance in Italy, the chapter briefly presents the work of Black American dancer Bob Curtis and white Italian dancer Katina Genero, two pioneers who first introduced an African-derived movement vocabulary in the Italian dance scene. It then considers the more recent circulation of traditional West African dance forms introduced predominantly by migrating African artists.