Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Oladoyin's Thesis PDF.pdf (528.35 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

What I Do When I Dance: Foregrounding Female Agency in the Dance Culture in Nigeria

Abiona, Oladoyin Olubukola
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6714-1228
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1621977769335732

Abstract Details

2021, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Popular Culture.
Scholarship on female representations in hip hop has been predominantly premised on the sexualization of the female body. By focusing mainly on this singular aspect of the genre, we reduce the whole essence of womanhood in the industry to such interpretations. The limited scope of such discussions deprives the women of opportunities to tell their own stories of what they do when they dance. Seeing the cultural significance of dance as a form of popular culture in the Nigerian context, this essay, from a feminist perspective, closes this gap by engaging in a qualitative exploration of the lives of three female dancers in Nigeria telling their stories through dance. They are Kaffayat Oluwatoyin Shafau (Kaffy), Odumewu Debbie (Debbiepinkie), and Usiwo Orezinena Jane (Janemena). Exploring their social media archives, interviews granted to TV stations and a published autobiography “Alajoota” by Kaffy, this essay contextualizes and complicates the interpretations of sexualization in the Nigerian hip hop dance industry. Through dance Nigerian women performers are able to negotiate the heavily male-dominated hip hop scene. For them, dance is a coping strategy, a profession, a space for redefining self and embracing sexuality and femininity, and a form of youthful identity and inclusion. Anne Anlin Cheng in Second Skin: asks “How is it we know we are seeing what we think we are seeing? What are the conditions under which we see” (3)? Though theirs is still a negotiated agency, as it is in any society with hierarchies, their dancing taunts and resists patriarchy while working in and around the socio-economic, religious, and cultural contexts of Nigeria. By engaging dancers using academic discourses, we communicate their importance and highlight the social issues of greatest concern to women such as domestic violence, the rate of unemployment, the psychological effects of cultural confinement, and the burdens of stringent gender expectations.
Angela Nelson (Advisor)
Jeremy Wallach (Committee Member)
Rahdika Gajjala (Committee Member)
97 p.
Cultural Anthropology; Dance
Dance; Hip-Hop, Nigeria; Femininity; Youthfulness; Inclusion; Survival; Popular Culture; Feminism

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Abiona, O. O. (2021). What I Do When I Dance: Foregrounding Female Agency in the Dance Culture in Nigeria [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1621977769335732

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Abiona, Oladoyin. What I Do When I Dance: Foregrounding Female Agency in the Dance Culture in Nigeria. 2021. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1621977769335732.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Abiona, Oladoyin. "What I Do When I Dance: Foregrounding Female Agency in the Dance Culture in Nigeria." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1621977769335732

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1621977769335732
993
© 2021, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12