American Identity Term Paper

American Identity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3kdY2vMO0w

The above link is a Youtube clip from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. Most ballets are performed by a company of trained dancers. The performances are intricately choreographed to telegraph the emotions and feelings of the characters and to relay the plot of the story without using an dialogue. In this scene, the heroine Clara and the young prince watch a variety of performers, including a pair of dancers who are supposed to be Chinese. In the context of the ballet, this scene is supposed to be one of a series of wonders that the prince shows Clara because at the time of the writing of the ballet, few people would have had direct interaction with Chinese people. They appear in modified versions of traditional Chinese garb and appear to have exaggerated versions of Chinese peasant hats upon their heads.Although the performance is a ballet and the dance is performed in the traditional steps of such a piece, there is also an undercurrent of stereotyping in the choreography. For example, much of the time the dancers have their arms crossed which is often seen in films and plays with stereotypical Chinese people as a gesture that is common to the people. Also, the accessories that the dancers have like the fans in the woman's hands and the long ponytail of the male dancer underscore that these are not real Chinese people, but prejudicial depictions based upon what the western world knew of that Asian country. The customs of an entire culture are distilled down….....