Interculturalidades en danza: Recreaciones del imaginario identitario argentino

Abstract

This article analyzes how Argentine cultural policies between 2010 and 2015 sought to challenge the traditional identity imaginary of Argentinians as White Europeans. For this purpose, I initially made a genealogy of the main transformations of these policies and imaginaries to later focus on the performances of the Combinado Argentino de Danza (CAD) in the celebrations to commemorate the birth of Argentina as a nation state organized by the National Cultural Ministry. CAD was the first group on the local scene to propose combining national folk genres that reevaluate indigenous influences with hip hop, modern dance and electronic music, prompting artists from different regional and esthetic origins to work together. This case forms the basis for my examination of the ways in which global multiculturalist ideologies have been reworked locally as political attempts to legitimize a new intercultural, popular and non-sexist national imaginary.