Transnationality, Transculturality and Ethnicity: A Look at Balkan Fest, San Diego, California

Yıl 2019, Cilt: 3 Sayı: 1, 1 - 36, 30.06.2019

Daniela Ivanova-nyberg

https://doi.org/10.33906/musicologist.563206

Öz

This text is the result of an ethnochoreological and anthropological
investigation of folk dance practices at Balkan Fest in San Diego, California
(2013 et seq.), in which the Bulgarian community plays a central role. Although
Balkan Fest has already been approached in one of my earlier works, and the
California Bulgarian community has been addressed in a paper discussing the
‘re-discovery’ of Bulgarian folk dance, there was no focus on transnational and
transcultural approaches (and experiences) in these works, which are addressed
in the present text; these approaches are adopted here for setting the context
and supporting my analysis. Balkan Fest reveals “ways of belonging”, in which
Bulgarian music and dance play an important role. This article proposes that,
to many of the festival’s attendees, the festival’s campground became a space
(a ‘village,’ a ‘home’) where one is physically absent, but spiritually and
emotionally present in one’s country of origin. Besides being a playground –
both metaphorically and literally – the festival offers various activities for
children to retain their Bulgarian ethnic identity (although raised as
Bulgarian-Americans). Simultaneously, this is a California ‘Balkan Fest,’ in
which people of different backgrounds meet, and where the dance floor becomes a
venue for the convergence of various dance traditions.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Music, Dance, Festival, Bulgarian community, USA

Teşekkür

PCHELA Bulgarian Cultural and Educational Society; Californian Bulgarian community; Trabzon University State Conservatory – for providing a forum to present this research (3rd International Music and Dance Studies Symposium, Trabzon, Turkey, October 17-20, 2018)

Kaynakça

• Bentz, Valerie Malhotra. (1989). Becoming Mature: Childhood Ghosts and Spirits in Adult Life. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
• Berry, Ellen E.; Epstein, Mikhail N. (Eds.) (1999). Transcultural Experiments: Russian and American Models of Creative Communication. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
• Brink, Pamela. J. (1994). “Transcultural Versus Cross-Cultural.” Western Journal of Nursing Research, 16(4): 344–346. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/019394599401600401 (accessed 10 October 2017).
• Buckland, Theresa J. (1999). “[Re]Constructing Meaning: The Dance Ethnographer as Keeper of the Truth” Dance in the Field: Theory, Methods, and Issues in Dance Ethnography, Ed. Theresa Buckland: pp. 196-207. London: Macmillan Press; New York: St. Martin’s Press.
• Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (2001). Flow. The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club. [Original work published 1990]
• Dagnino, Arianna. (2013). “Global Mobility, Transcultural Literature, and Multiple Modes of Modernity.” Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/3432275/Global_Mobility_Transcultural_Literature_and_Multiple_Modes_of_Modernity (accessed 9 January 2017).
• Epstein, Mickhail. (1999) “From Culturology to Transculture” Transcultural Experiments: Russian and American Models of Creative Communication, Eds. Berry, Ellen E. and Mikhail N. Epstein: pp. 15-25. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
• Eriksen, Thomas. (2000). “Bringing ‘the cultural stuff’ back into ethnicity research.” Bendix, Regina, and Herman Roodenburg (Еds.) Managing ethnicity: perspectives from folklore studies, history and anthropology. Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/22216516/Ethnicity_and_culture_A_second_look (accessed 12 May 2019).
• Eriksen, Thomas. (2013). “Ethnicity: From Boundaries to Frontiers”, The Handbook of Sociocultural Anthropology: pp. 280-296. James Carrier and Deborah Gewertz, (Eds.) London-New Delhi-New York-Sidney: Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/24749769/Ethnicity_From_boundaries_to_frontiers (accessed 12 May 2019).
• Falassi, Alessandro (Ed.) (1987). Time out of Time: Essays on the Festival. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
• Feinberg, Joseph Grim. (2018). The Paradox of Authenticity: Folklore Performance in Post-Communist Slovakia. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
• Glick Schiller, Nina; Linda Basch; Cristina Blanc Szanton. (1992). Towards a Transnational Perspective on Migration: Race, Class, Ethnicity and Nationalism Reconsidered. New York: New York Academy of Science.
• Glick Schiller, Nina (2008). “Theorizing about and beyond Transnational Processes.” Rodriguez, M. et al. (Eds.) Caribbean Migration to Western Europe and the United States. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270900488_Theorising_About_and_Beyond_Transnational_Processes (accessed 15 May 2019).
• Grancharova, Evgenia. (2013). “Folklore Dance Clubs: A New Phenomenon in Modern Bulgarian Urban Culture,” Our Europe. Ethnography – Ethnology – Anthropology of Culture. (2):177-194. Retrieved from http://www.wydawnictwo.ptpn.poznan.pl/czasopisma/our/OE-2013-177-194-Grancharova.pdf (accessed 1 February 2016).
• Ivanova-Nyberg, Daniela. (2011). “A ‘Balkan’ Folk Dance Phenomenon in the United States: A Few Analytical Observations” Porte Akademik: Journal of Music and Dance Research. 2(3):38-45.
• Ivanova-Nyberg, Daniela. (2014). “Folk Dancing Abroad: Bulgarian Folk Dance Activities in the United States Today”Dance, Place, Festival. [The 27th Symposium of the ICTM, Study Group on Ethnochoreology] Dunin, Elsie Ivancich and Foley, Catherine E. (Eds.), (pp. 84–89). Limerick: The Irish Music and Dance; University of Limerick; ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology.
• Ivanova-Nyberg, Daniela. (2015). “Bulgarian Folk Dancing Rediscovered: Examples from Californian Bulgarian Communities and Beyond.” Paper Presented at American Folklore Society Annual Meeting. Long Beach, California. 14-17 October 2015.
• Ivanova-Nyberg, Daniela. (2016a). “Balkan Fest Europa Roots: What Kind of Fest, What Kind of Cultural Practice?” Paper Presented at DIY Cultures, Spaces and Places. KISMIF International Conference, Porto, Portugal, 18-22 July 2016.
• Ivanova-Nyberg, Daniela. (2016b). “‘There Will not be Another Koleda:’ Folk Dance Narratives and Studies of Folk Dance.” Unfinished Stories: Folklife and Folk Narrative at the Gateway to the Future, AFS/ISFNR (International Society for Folk Narrative Research) Joint Annual Meeting, Miami, October 19-22.
• Ivanova-Nyberg, Daniela. (2016c). “Bulgarian Folk Dance Club Repertoire Ten Years Later: What Genre? Where Shall we Put it?” Music and dance in Southeastern Europe: myth, ritual, post-1989, audio-visual ethnographies, Proceedings of [The Fifth Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe], Ivanka Vlaeva; Liz Mellish, […] (Eds.), (pp. 177-183). Blagoevgrad: University Publishing House Neofit Rilski.
• Ivanova-Nyberg, Daniela. (2018) “No Illusions: Music Matters. The Role of Balkan Night NW in Bringing Communities Together”. No Illusions, No Exclusions, Paper presented at American Folklore Society 130th Annual Meeting, Buffalo, New York, 17-20 October 2018.
• Isajiw, Wsevolod W. (1992). “Definition and Dimensions of Ethnicity: A Theoretical Framework” Challenges of Measuring an Ethnic World: Science, politics and reality. [Joint Canada-United States Conference on the Measurement of Ethnicity] Statistics Canada and U.S. Bureau of the Census, (pp. 407-427). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved from https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/68/2/Def_DimofEthnicity.pdf (accessed 8 February 2019).
• Laušević, Mirjana. (2007). Balkan Fascination: Creating an Alternative Music Culture in America. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Miller, Melissa. (1994). “Who Are These People and Why Are They Here? A Survey of Attendees at Mendocino Music and Dance Camp, June 1994.” Santa Clara University. (paper)
• Nahachewsky, Andriy. (2012). Ukrainian Dance. A Cross-Cultural Approach. Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
• Penchev, Vladimir et al. (Eds.) (2017). Kulturno Nasledstvo v Migratsia: Modelina Konsolidatsiai Institutsionalisatsiana Bulgarskite Obshtnosti v Chuzhbina (2014–2017). (Cultural Heritage in Migration: Models of Consolidation and Institutionalization of Bulgarian Communities Abroad). The Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Science. Sofia: Paradigma. Retrieved from http://www.migrantheritage.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/sbornik-Cultural-Heritage-in-Migration-2017.pdf (accessed 20 July 2018).
• Peterson, William; Novak, Michael; Gleason, Philip. (1982). Concept of Ethnicity. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. [Original work published 1980]
• Safran, William. (1991). “Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return.” Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies 1(1): 83-99. University of Toronto Press. Retrieved from Project MUSE database. doi:10.1353/dsp.1991.0004 (accessed 1 October 2018).
• Sideri, Eleni (2008). The Diaspora of the Term Diaspora: A Working-Paper of a Definition. Transtext(e)s Transcultures 跨文本跨文化, (4): 32–47. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.4000/TRANSTEXTS.247 (accessed 1 October 2018).
• Schiller, Nina Glick. (2012). “The Transnational Migration Paradigm.” Migration and Organized Civil Society: n. pag. Print. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/1613326/The_Transnational_Migration_Paradigm (accessed 1 May 2019).
• Shay, Anthony; Sellers-Young, Barbara. (2016). (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Ethnicity: pp. 298-305. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Testa, Alessandro. (2014). “Rethinking the Festival: Power and Politics.” In Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, n. 26 (1):44-73. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/19184187/Rethinking_the_Festival_Power_and_Politics (accessed 2 May 2019).
• Testa, Alessandro. (2019) “Doing Research on Festivals: Cui Bono?”. In Journal of Festive Studies, 1(1): 5–10. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/39162120/Doing_Research_on_Festivals_Cui_Bono (accessed 1 June 2019).
• Veselinov 2014.“Istinska Svatbana Bulgarski Festival v San Diego, California. (A Real Wedding at San Diego’s Bulgarian Festival),” BulgariCA, (May 26, 2014). Retrieved from http://www.bulgarica.com/2014/05/26/%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B8/%D1%83%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%B1%D1%8A%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0-%D1%81%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B1%D0%B0-%D0%B2-%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%84%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BD/ (accessed 15 May 2016).
• Welsh, Wolfgang. (1999). “Transculturality: the Puzzling Form of Cultures Today.” Mike Featherstone; Scott Lash (Eds.) Spaces of Culture: City, Nation, World: pp. 194–213. London; Thousand Oaks; New Delhi: SAGE Publication.