Research Abstract:
The use of YouTube in an authentication process may seem oxymoronic. By its very
nature, YouTube rebels against authenticity. Anyone can upload anything at anytime, no
guarantee of authenticity required. And yet, in this research context, we find an art form evoking
feelings of authenticity and tradition paired with a video site that is constantly updating and
freely changing. In fact, perhaps YouTube becomes most interesting when explored in
connection with something as ‘primordial’ and ‘authentic’ as traditional cultural dance. A
university cultural dance community provides an illuminating context in which to explore this
seemingly contradictory relationship. Here, we find an archaic and traditional dance style
situated in a highly modern and evolving university environment. This research investigates the
relationship between cultural dance, authenticity, and digital media through a 3-month
ethnographic study of Georgetown University’s traditional Greek dance community.
Following a review of literature and data analysis, the community’s understanding of
authenticity is explored. The results suggest that precise historical accuracy is seen as
unachievable (due to resources, audience attention span/general enjoyment), but some form of it
is desired, even necessary. This version of authentic Greek dance needs then to be paired with
being crowd-pleasing and entertaining. For the community, the two goals of authenticity and
performance create a need for balance – a balance mediated through YouTube.
YouTube plays a vital role in the constructed negotiation of the group’s local authenticity
– one that involves both the authenticity cultural dancing necessitates and a need to be an
entertaining performance.
Current Research Summary:
I began by looking at how the community in question defines and advertises itself.
The dance group is self-defined as “Georgetown’s traditional Greek dance group.” Being a dance
group indexes performance, the ability to capture an audience’s attention and provide
entertainment, something particularly appealing in a university setting. Being a traditional Greek
dance group indexes an involvement with culture, heritage, and the claim to historical
authenticity that that implies.
After 5 ethnographic interviews and hours of participant observation, I sought to investigate the
following: How does this particular university Greek dance community reconcile both aspects of
its identity?
Supported by data collected from ethnographic interviews, I proposed the following: There is
acknowledgement that in Greek dance, being authentic in its most literal sense is neither
practical nor possible and yet by virtue of being a Greek dance group, there is an expectation and
desire to remain within the realm of a necessarily constructed Greek dance authenticity. From
there, I posit that for the community, there exists a tension between the need to be authentic and
the desire to be an entertaining performance group, or “being able to put on a good show.”
The data then leads me to conclude that to reconcile this tension, a balance is enforced – a
balance achieved through a process of “traditionalization” and a negotiation of a “living
tradition.”
Ethnographer Gilmore (2002) writes about “living tradition” as a negotiated order, one involving
an interpreted conception of the past (or perhaps constructed authenticity) and a negotiated social
reenactment of the present. For the group, YouTube plays a key role in this negotiation. The
videos of ‘professional’ Greek dance groups could be seen as the interpreted conception of the
past, while the negotiation involved in picking which videos are used, which moves are
applicable/allowed for the group, what groups are credible etc. in order to produce an
entertaining, engaging performance, presents the agreement process.
So, YouTube could be seen as a regulating force, helping to keep the group in a happy balance
and successfully negotiate their own living tradition.
Interestingly, my data presents YouTube exerting both a positive and negative regulatory effect.
I will explore this idea in relation to the videos posted of other Greek dance groups. I will also
examine the role that the community’s own YouTube videos play in this process of striving for
balance.
The results lead me to believe that, for this cultural dance community, precise historical accuracy
is seen as unachievable (due to resources, audience attention span/general enjoyment), but some
form of it is desired, even necessary. This version of authentic Greek dance needs then to be
paired with being “crowd-pleasing.”
For the group, the two goals of authenticity and performance create a need for balance – a
balance mediated through YouTube. And so YouTube, through the form of both videos, plays a
vital role in the process of creating an authentically entertaining performance.
References:
Gilmore, S. (2000). Doing culture work: negotiation tradition and authenticity in Filipino folk
dance. Sociological Perspectives, 43(4), S21-S41.
Gonzalves, T. S. (2010). The day the dancers stayed: Performing in the Filipino/American
Diaspora. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Hymes, D. (1975). Folklore’s nature and the sun’s myth. The Journal of American Folklore,
88(350), 345-369.
Moore, A. (2002). Authenticity as authentication. Popular Music, 21(2), 209–223.
Sacchetti-Dufresne, C. (2008). Watching “authentic” Italian dance: Authenticity, identity,
YouTube. Retrieved from
http://people.uleth.ca/~scds.secd/English/Resources/ClaraSacchettiDufresne.pdf
Shay, A. (2006). Choreographing identities: Folk dance, ethnicity and festival in the United
States and Canada. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.