ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that the encoding of memory in dancing bodies during apartheid can be understood through at least three lenses: dis-empowerment ↔ empowerment; dis-embodiment ↔ embodiment; and dis-placement ↔ placement. A significant example of the way in which dancing bodies were displaced due to the apartheid regime’s tyranny can be found in the history of the Cape Minstrels. Apartheid policy was constituted by a number of legislative acts, including the strict classification of the population according to race and the prohibition of interracial sexual relations. Royal Ballet prospered under the Afrikaner government and became the “highest” form of dance under the apartheid regime. The performing arts councils became examples of apartheid’s “memory institutions”, using silences and narratives of power to construct experience. The Western division between high art and low art was embraced by the apartheid regime, with whiteness associated with art and blackness relegated to ‘folk’ or ethnic popular culture.
