Dance of the Deer, a folkloric dance based on an ancient hunting dance. Photo by Andrea Seidel.

The colorful dancers take a rest after performing a Deer Dance in Toledo District, Belize.

Wednesday, March 10 , 2010

IMS Presentation in the
Museum Auditorium
8 PM – 9:30 PM

"Dancing with Tzijolaj: Transcending Cultural Boundaries of the K'iché Maya World"
with Dr. Andrea Mantell Seidel
 

This presentation will explore the anomalies of an international cultural exchange project between an American modern dance artist/scholar and Grupo Cultural Uk'ux Pop Wuj's, a Maya folkloric group from Chichicastenango, Guatemala. The presentation will discuss the sometimes fluid, sometimes colliding, intercultural intersections between the pre-modern sensibility of a contemporary Maya sacred ritual world and the aesthetics of a contemporary artist/scholar participating as the first Westerner in an all-Maya folkloric festival in Chichicastenango. The exchange embodied the us/them dichotomy and, at the same time, sought to create a connecting thread that traversed invisible lines of nation, religion, and culture.

Andrea Mantell Seidel is the Senior Director of Academic Programs and founding director of the Intercultural Dance and Music Institute housed in the Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University since 1992. She was a tenured associate professor of dance in the Department of Dance from l991-2008 and in 2009 transferred to the Department of Religious Studies as an Associate Professor. Dr. Seidel has lectured, presented papers, and performed at prestigious national and international conferences and festivals throughout the US, Canada, Latin America, Russia, Europe, and Asia, including the Internationales Tanzfestival in Germany; the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington; Hong Kong International Conference and Festival; NYC Lincoln Center Festival Out-of-Doors; International Festival de las Mujeres en la Danza, Ecuador; and the International Goethe Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, among numerous other venues. She holds a doctorate in dance from New York University in dance ethnology and has published numerous articles on the indigenous religion and sacred ritual of the Americas; historic roots of early modern dance; and intercultural, interdisciplinary issues in the arts and area studies in higher education.

Dr. Seidel is the recipient of over 70 national, state, and local grants, including a US Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education, three-year grant ($225,000) for Dancing Across Disciplines: A 21st Model for Dance and Area Studies in the Academy. She was recently awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholar grant to research, teach, and consult in Honduras in summer 2010.