Dancing the Cold War Symposium, February 16-18

Thursday, February 16, 2017 to Saturday, February 18, 2017

1512 International Affairs Building (420 West 118th St) [NOTE: Opening night is in 1501 IAB]

Sponsored by the Harriman Institute and the Barnard College Department of Dance.

From the event page: The Cold War was fought on many fronts, with dance as a powerful weapon in its arsenal.  The ballet wars of the 1950s and 1960s, including high-profile defections, captured international headlines, but numerous forms of dance from folk dance and modern dance to rock and roll were drawn into an ideological struggle that pitted capitalist freedom again communist oppression.  Dancing the Cold War, a three-day international symposium sponsored by the Harriman Institute and curated by Lynn Garafola, brings together scholars, artists, critics, and others to explore the multiple dance encounters that took place during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States as well as the allies, clients, and surrogates of those countries in different parts of the world.  It will consider the impact of touring and the mass media in challenging ideological certainties and the changes that transformed the Russian dance community in the immediate post-Soviet period.

See the Harriman Institute for a full list of panels and participants.