Obamanating, Dance, Power

It was often remarked how unusual the 2008 Presidential campaign was in the United States for the simple fact that the candidates not only made sure to make the rounds of the news talk shows, but they also made the rounds of daytime talk shows and late night television. All of this amounted to, in fact, self-mockery in many cases, often, as int he case of Obama, to give a better sense of the like-every-body-else-ness of a man who holds degrees from some of the top schools in the nation, with excellent grades no less. In this installment of my investigation of the kinesthetic conjuring around/through Obama, I will look at the impersonator. For those late night appearances could be read as self-impersonation, but they were definitely moments that allowed for a "thicker" study of Obama's kinestethic palette.

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Barack Obama Pt. 1

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a late breaking appearance, Obama clearly has figured out how to do snarky and still look cool

We can think about Obama "markin'" himself in the vernacular (imitating with a slight bit of dramatas to draw attention to an otherwise indistinguishable affect upon which the actor relies to convey meaning) and also in the denotation of "mark," and "to mark," in all its meanings in the dictionary. Really. From the online Merriam Webster for "mark/noun":
1: a boundary land
2 a (1): a conspicuous object serving as a guide for travelers (2): something (as a line, notch, or fixed object) designed to record position b: one of the bits of leather or colored bunting placed on a sounding line at intervals c: target d: the starting line or position in a track event e (1): goal , object (2): an object of attack, ridicule, or abuse ; specifically : a victim or prospective victim of a swindle (3): the point under discussion (4): condition of being correct or accurate mark> f: a standard of performance, quality, or condition : norm mark lately>
3 a (1): sign , indication mark of his esteem> (2): an impression (as a scratch, scar, or stain) made on something (3): a distinguishing trait or quality : characteristic marks of an educated person> b: a symbol used for identification or indication of ownership c: a cross made in place of a signature d (1): trademark (2)capitalized —used with a numeral to designate a particular model of a weapon or machine <Mark II> e: a written or printed symbol (as a comma or colon) f: postmark g: a symbol used to represent a teacher's estimate of a student's work or conduct ; especially : grade h: a figure registering a point or level reached or achieved mark in the first period of play> ; especially : record
4 a: attention , notice mark> b: importance , distinction mark> c: a lasting or strong impression d: an assessment of merits : rating marks for honesty>

Okay, maybe Obama is not a postmark, but he did use the song "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" by Stevie Wonder, so then again...The point I hope I have made here is that delivering a particular corpo-reality for a specific time slot, audience, and network, is no small feat. What Obama was successful in doing is creating a string of impersonations that gave the effect of proximity to the viewer following him; especially if that viewer were not a television viewer, but rather a clipwatcher on YouTube.








Some of the videos I have posted in this series of Barack Obama are cataloged on his channel on YouTube. This is significant. These "microplays" and "instant dances" were available 24/7 as on-demand instant replay, unfolding an unusual character, one that certainly never makes it to the curtain call as a clear hero: the mulatto man. Where the tragedy of a female torn between her two races is a much gone-over story layered over celebrity products like Dorothy Dandridge, Lorraine Hansberry, and Mariah Carey (yes I know that only Mariah is a real one..for more on that read Melissa Blanco's dissertation, Ochuness...), you would be hard pressed to think about a story or movie from the US where the main character "mixed race" and a man. Jean Toomer's Cane, perhaps, and then certain sequences from Roots. Leave comments if you have others. All this to point out that Obama's kinestheic awareness does not cohere around a stereotype.

That might be overstatement.

But for now, I'll leave it there and we can look at ways that others took Obama's forays into self-impersonation and made their own.

Dance, Power, Obamamania

Having written these quick perspectives on dance practice and the figure of Obama, I realized that I should look at the man himself dancing. He did a lot of it. It reminds me of that quote, "if I can't dance in your revolution, then I don't want to be a part of it..." often attributed to Emma Goldman.



Obama the man seemd to be having a genuinely good time spreading his message wherever he went. His forays into ass shaking, rather than cause a good deal of laughing, were met with geniune delight and response in kind. We can think about his hips, and those cute little fists up by the shoulders, relaying information that he could not otherwise say without sounding cocky and/or crazy: "I am winning and I know it. I am joyful in this knowledge and I invite you to join me in this feeling."



Obama is that guy who starts dancing across the dance floor when his song comes on in search of a partner, moving his head and hips while professionally scanning the room until he finds YOU.



Obviously, a lot of people decided he would be a great dance partner, just enough awkardness to make his moves accesible and endearing; locked on the beat, though, so you can't get lost in the melissima or polyrhythm. It's in his dancing that all of his points of origins could be said to coalesce, revealing a man with many options, not one beholden to "blood memories."

In dance scholarship we frequently trace, or at least attempt to, the history of a dance move, discover who it "Really" belongs to, when it was first performed/staged/recorded/taught, etc. This act is usually futile, since most popular dances evolve mightily form their point of origin, other dances that seem to circulate mostly as religious implements tend to turn up at house parties with different music, poeple travel, artists, travel and then so do the dances. The provenance of a dance is quite an elusive thing.

Similarly, stamping a racial identity onto a series of floor patterns, torso isolations (or not), spine positions and arm swings can also be exhausting, and in the end, ten years down the line, really not the point of the dance anyway. These days, I prefer to think about dances, popular dances, as a series of networked corpo-realities that mark a specific location, pattern of practice and set of material conditions (that includes access to television and/or robust internet connections). To me, Obama's hips, facial expression, feet, arms, and hands reveal not so much ancestry as travel, accomodation, adoptation...code switching.



Given that we all now find ourselves immersed in codes, digital, indexical and corporeal--the ease with which Obama can allow in his body several codes to co-exist without resolving them is on the one hand, "funny," but on the other, "cool." This not to be confused or conflated with the "cool" that he exudes when getting out of a car, or putting on his jacket, lighting up a cigarette, kicking up his feet. No that cool is almost a picture perfect study in 1950s bebop elegance. The cool that I am referncing is the, "that's ok like that. I like it cause it is itself" type of cool that so many of us use instead of saying, "alright," "ok," or even "yes." Obama's dancing is cool cause, well yeah, I could do that. That's cool.

A little hip there, a lot of teeth here, and soon, Obama's dancing helped create a delirium, a mass need to move with him; effortlessly, in one's own contradictions.

Obama, Dance, Power II

The choreostories we inscribe on ourselves to celebrate great passages can often seem obscure if we think of the passage has having only a two-dimensional force: here to there. The election of Barack Obama, plural entity that he is, presents an opportunity for us to rethink the ways in which dance stories are not so much marking a singular transition as they are multiplexing the various elements that combine to give rise to "a moment." Such is the case with the video below.



The residents of this Japanese town live literally in Obama. Pause for a minute. The name that we have been rhyming with "Osama" and collectively amazed at the similarities also turns out to be a place, but in a region of the world far removed from the Middle East conflict and Barack Obama's father's homeland of Kenya. Nope this is even sweeter, since Barack Obama, here I will call him Barry, since Barry is from the Pacific Islands known as Hawai'i, a place with a very large Japanese ex-pat community. Japanese tourists favor the islands of Hawai'i as a destination. It should come as no surprise, and yet it does, that the dance that the people of Obama, Japan would pick to celebrate Obama the man would be the hula, since he is, Hawai'ian.

The choreostory they crafted tells of his journey to the white house, making him an epic hero. Never mind that culturally he is not illili, nor through heritage. his heartspace, the place where he goes to recharge is in Honolulu. Therfore, to welcome the hero into his new palace, the dance of that most reminds him of home should be done.

For all of this, what Asian-Americans were interested in seemed to be missing from his campaign. Odd since he grew up in a Pan-Asian environment. Reading his name as the flight from that childhood to a more African one only to discover later in life that it takes him instantaneously back into "oceania," I am struck by the inability to escape his metanarrative of being/belonging to everyone.



o
ba
ma

In his name, are root words, primordial: air, father, mother. That's my hoodoo kickin in with a dash of Afrocentrism. But I do think that I'm not too far off. This chant that Barry picked for a name...can't help but want to dance to it, for it and in it. Talk about Conjure!

The dancers in the video also desire something Other than Barry: they are very skilled in the dance so they did not just up and decide to do hula a few weeks ago. Like salsa in Tokyo, there seems to be a proficiency here verging on a transposition of self. In all of this, how does the man which inhabits the mantra/greeting/chant transform through each hip swirl, kick and spin?


(C)Anna Beatrice Scott