My essay on Salsa for the Sociology of Tourism, one I did in school... I think I had some interesting observations, but din have much time to write it down properly.... Oh well, maybe next time I'll edit it. I'm posting it here in case I loose my essay, like I did my last one on gender relations!
Authenticity vs. Homogeneity
Salsa tourism is the gathering of salsa dancers from all over the world in a place which organizes a festival or congress (e.g., Hong Kong) where world renowned instructors teach, perform and social dance in the event which spans at least 4 days. These stars are brought in from all over the world to attract locals and tourists alike to participate in the festival. They show off their famously unique moves during the festivals and are hailed as authentic salsa dancers with original and unique moves that define the borders of salsa[1]. A person participating in the festival can be what Cohen calls an “experiential tourist” who seeks out the “mystified” experience of meeting these famous dancers in person, watching them perform, learning from them, and also, dancing with them (1979a, 1985 quoted in Mowforth and Munt, 74; MacCannell, 102). Participants also come to see new dance steps that have been invented and discovered, and they have a desire for these real, authentic experiences that can lead them to discover more about themselves and the dance (Inglis, 6).
Famous dancers have a huge following of dancers who will emulate their dance style and dressing. An example is Frankie Martinez and the Korean salsa scene. Top dancers emulate his dance style and dressing: Martinez likes to hold the bottom ends of his shirt and toy with it while he dances; many dancers in Korea do that. He has a certain unique style that consists of very quick footwork interspersed with slow body isolations, which is also emulated in Korea. Many of his performances have been adapted; e.g., he dressed like a pirate in one of his performances in Korea and in the Hong Kong Salsa Festival 2006, a performer emerged in clothing that was cut and ripped to look like rags that a pirate would wear, dancing in a style that was clearly adapted from Martinez’s. A point to note here is the disjuncture between what is said and what is done. Salsa advocates creativity and innovativeness in its dance. New styles are vigorously praised, and yet, they are furiously replicated.
Salsa tourism, which encourages the sharing of knowledge in salsa, thus raises the problem of homogeneity. With the massive copying of the “authentic”, the dancing scene becomes resoundingly duplicated as people imitate the dances, style, dressing and even music of their idols. This, however, is encouraged by the stars and the organizers behind the salsa festivals: imitation implies that the dancer is famous, and this ensures that he does not run out of business because his idols will pay to see him dance and teach. They will also buy his instructional DVDs and take additional classes from him. These will increase his status, wealth and power within the salsa scene. Mowforth and Munt (2003) in Tourism and Sustainability: Development and New Tourism in the Third World defined ideology as “the way relationships of power are inexorably interwoven in the production and representation of meaning which serves the interests of a particular social group” (46). The ideology of the authentic salsa dancer is endorsed by the festival organizers who commodify and sell him in the festival, thereby giving the dancer a good reputation which allows both of them to benefit. This commodification of a person is similar to that of a pop star, and in the context of salsa festivals, the more popular an artiste is, the higher price he fetches. Salsa festivals and celebrities survive on this commodification of the authentic good: the dancer.
As we have seen so far, salsa tourism attracts tourists to a locality by promising an experience of a lifetime in dancing with the top salsa dancers in the world. This commodification of the celebrity dancer has imperialist undertones: the world renowned dancers are from USA and Europe, largely colonial countries. This is due to the fact that Salsa was popularized in the USA and spread to Europe and then to Asia (where it is still relatively new). The salsa ‘hub’ is viewed to be in Los Angeles and New York, an environment whereby the standard is the highest and where most of the famous dancers originate. The inconsistent developments in the standard of dancing result in the unequal structural relationships in the salsa tourism industry whereby the less developed Asian countries adopt a more passive role in the festival by idolizing the celebrity dancers from the west and paying them to endorse their festivals (Stephen Britton quoted in Mowforth and Munt, 49-50).
Role Reversal
There are four categories of people we see in salsa festivals: the overseas artists, the local artists, the overseas participants and the local participants. My focus here is on the overseas artists in the festival. As clearly evident in the preceding paragraphs, the “authentic” commodity in salsa tourism is not the local culture or heritage but the tourists – the overseas artists – themselves. As such, there is a role reversal in salsa tourism, whereby the authentic is the tourist who makes himself the object of attention. Through the overseas artists, salsa tourism effectively draws overseas salsa fanatics into the country. Moreover, it also entices the local crowd to participate. However, unlike other forms of tourism, the locals are not the object of focus here; they are like local tourists, who come to see the “authentic”, and may undergo a liminal phase which temporarily “suspends” them from their norm to indulge in play and fantasy like a tourist (Tucker, 151).
In social dancing[2], the artists are the objects of the participants’ gaze (Urry, 1990a quoted in Mowforth and Munt, 72). These participants consume the “other” - the professional dancer - in their efforts to reach the romanticized perfection of dancing salsa (Lippard, 2-5; Mowforth and Munt, 73). The dancers are video-recorded and photographed, and it is a thrill for the participants to dance with them, which is all part of the experience of the salsa festival. This is similar to Tucker’s “living museum”, where tourists interact with the locals in what they view as the natural environment of the local in their quest for the authentic experience (149). In this case, the social environment where the dancers are dancing socially and not a choreographed routine is the dancer’s natural environment and it is here that the participants want to interact with them by dancing with them.
Unlike the normal form of tourism, the fetish[3] of the salsa participants to see and experience the authentic and real dancer is not necessarily bad for the celebrity. The main reason is because the power relationship in this form of tourism is different from the regular kind. As mentioned, the artiste benefits from his fame. In a normal tourism structure, the power lies in the hands of the first world country that flocks to third world countries to view the exotic “other”. This is due to the fact that the third world is reliant on the first world to market their country and organize the tourists to go to their country (Mowforth and Munt, 50). In salsa tourism, the power still lies in the hands of the first world (e.g., USA). The difference is in that the exotic Other is the first world tourists themselves who have the power to choose which country to go to. Moreover, they are not subjected to the whims and fancies of the participants who come to see them; this is drastically different from the “helpful, smiling and servile” local who serve the tourists on a typical tour (Mowforth and Munt, 64). Rather, these performers are worshipped and held in high regard as the exotic and talented Other whom the participants idolize and seek to emulate.
Therefore, salsa tourism is a new form of tourism that is an institutionalized bubble which is set up by the West to accumulate capital from the “rest”. It enables them to go to a place where salsa is less developed, so that they have a chance to “play” at being a celebrity and be idolized by participants (Tucker, 151). This is not very different from the tourists who go to third world countries to be pampered by the locals and indulge in luxuries (Inglis, 6). In this case, the tourist gaze is intentionally fixed on the dancer, who thrives in the idolization of being the superior Other. The fetish becomes like worship, which is but another form of imperialism.
Conclusion
Although salsa tourism has imperialist undertones, one can see the emergence of the resistance to it. As Asia catches up in the salsa scene, there is the emergence of new dancers who are striving to re-invent their identity, resisting the inferior implications of their dancing (Tucker, 157). This was seen in the Hong Kong Open Salsa Competition held in the festival, where couples from India, Korea and Singapore emerged with a unique style of their own that can pose a strong challenge to the domination from the west. This may bring about a balance in the unequal opportunities that have arisen in the salsa tourism sphere and redefining the power relations within Salsa tourism.
Bibliography
Inglis, Fred (2000) The Delicious History of the Holiday, chapter 1, New York: Routledge.
Lippard, Lucy R. (1999) “Introduction: On Rubbernecking”, in On the Beaten Track. Tourism, Art and Place, New York: New York Press
MacCannell, Dean (1976) “Staged Authenticity”, in The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class, Introduction, New York: Schocken Books, ch. 5.
Mowforth, M. and Munt, I. (2003) Tourism and Sustainability: Development and New Tourism in the Third World, London and New York: Routledge, ch.3
Tucker, Hazel (2002) “Welcome to Flintstone’s Land: Contesting Place and Identity in Goreme, Central Turkey” in Tourism: between place and performance, edited by Simon Coleman and Mike Crang, Oxford: Berghan.
Footnotes
[1] Usually what are authentic are the famous names that are endorsed by the Salsa scene in the world, with Los Angeles and New York leading the way. Dances that are a hot favorite among the audience are strongly endorsed and “authenticated” by the salsa population. The “unauthentic” are disliked and not endorsed by anyone.
[2] Social dance, unlike performance, is deemed to be a natural setting in dance, much like a backstage (MacCannell). This is due to the fact that social dancing is not choreographed with one’s partner or with the music, and deemed to be instinctive and “made up” intuitively to the mood of the music. This is compared to a performance, which is choreographed and clearly staged for the audience (a front stage).
[3] Fetish is defined in Mowforth and Munt (2003) to be the underlying way in which social relationships of production are disguised or covered up (67).
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