{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/cn6xw4b059/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Migrating Identities: Exploring the Role of Dance Movements Systems in the Politics of Identity among the Ghanaian Diaspora in Alberta, Canada"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/128/original/UA_Logo_WHT_RGB_%281%29.png?1725471982","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis dissertation examines how Ghanaian neo-traditional dance practices in Canada negotiate belonging, memory, and authority within the promises and limits of multicultural policy while resisting metonymic misrepresentation: the reductive use of a single performative register to stand for a whole culture. Treating rehearsal and performance as fieldwork, I analyze how the Ghanaian diaspora associations in Alberta curate “Ghanaian-ness” through choreographic choices, instrument ecologies, and event framings. Two lenses organize the analysis: inter- gesturality (the circulation and recombination of gesture set across communities and categories) and intra-gesturality (variation within a single vocabulary as gestures inflect through pedagogy, style, and constraint). Drawing on Briggs and Bauman’s account of intertextuality and the productive gaps that arise “when discourse is lifted from one context and reinserted into another” (Briggs and Bauman 1992), I show how diasporic performances both expose and manage the slippages between staged signs and lived practice, and how a dance “text” cites prior lineages yet necessarily transforms across new venues, publics, and resource conditions. I develop the concept ‘excellence under constraint’ to demonstrate how material scarcities, especially reduced drummer density and venue “stage architectures,” generate distinctive diasporic forms rather than merely limiting practice; the production Paper Ship serves as a core case of choreography forged through scarcity, mobility, and archival intent. Ethnographic cases from Alberta, read alongside Ghanaian historical materials and performance lineages, ground a critique of policy logics that celebrate display while underfunding embodied knowledge and the culture-bearing labor on which it depends. The study asks: What counts as “Ghanaian identity” in multicultural Alberta, Canada, by whom, and to what end? How do cultural brokers like performers, organizers, and academics shape transmission, authorship, and assessment? What governance and pedagogic models sustain long-horizon cultural education beyond event-based celebration? Findings reposition neo-traditional and neo-diasporic dance-music as analytic sites within a plural cultural field, articulate method and policy frameworks that credit sounding/moving knowledge alongside text and propose equity-weighted resourcing for ensemble forms.\u003c/p\u003e (abstract)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Library with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2025-05-29 (captured)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Awuah, Eric (Creator)","Braimah, Mustapha (Performer)"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis dissertation examines how Ghanaian neo-traditional dance practices in Canada negotiate belonging, memory, and authority within the promises and limits of multicultural policy while resisting metonymic misrepresentation: the reductive use of a single performative register to stand for a whole culture. Treating rehearsal and performance as fieldwork, I analyze how the Ghanaian diaspora associations in Alberta curate \u0026ldquo;Ghanaian-ness\u0026rdquo; through choreographic choices, instrument ecologies, and event framings. Two lenses organize the analysis: inter- gesturality (the circulation and recombination of gesture set across communities and categories) and intra-gesturality (variation within a single vocabulary as gestures inflect through pedagogy, style, and constraint). Drawing on Briggs and Bauman\u0026rsquo;s account of intertextuality and the productive gaps that arise \u0026ldquo;when discourse is lifted from one context and reinserted into another\u0026rdquo; (Briggs and Bauman 1992), I show how diasporic performances both expose and manage the slippages between staged signs and lived practice, and how a dance \u0026ldquo;text\u0026rdquo; cites prior lineages yet necessarily transforms across new venues, publics, and resource conditions. I develop the concept \u0026lsquo;excellence under constraint\u0026rsquo; to demonstrate how material scarcities, especially reduced drummer density and venue \u0026ldquo;stage architectures,\u0026rdquo; generate distinctive diasporic forms rather than merely limiting practice; the production Paper Ship serves as a core case of choreography forged through scarcity, mobility, and archival intent. Ethnographic cases from Alberta, read alongside Ghanaian historical materials and performance lineages, ground a critique of policy logics that celebrate display while underfunding embodied knowledge and the culture-bearing labor on which it depends. The study asks: What counts as \u0026ldquo;Ghanaian identity\u0026rdquo; in multicultural Alberta, Canada, by whom, and to what end? How do cultural brokers like performers, organizers, and academics shape transmission, authorship, and assessment? What governance and pedagogic models sustain long-horizon cultural education beyond event-based celebration? Findings reposition neo-traditional and neo-diasporic dance-music as analytic sites within a plural cultural field, articulate method and policy frameworks that credit sounding/moving knowledge alongside text and propose equity-weighted resourcing for ensemble forms.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Library with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["University of Alberta Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["University of Alberta Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/128/original/UA_Logo_WHT_RGB_%281%29.png?1725471982","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/312/101/small/PaperShipAct1.mp4_1781555130.jpg?1781555135","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1782/collection_resources/173009/file/312101","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 2 - Paper_Ship_Act_1.mp4"]},"duration":2319.46667,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/312/101/small/PaperShipAct1.mp4_1781555130.jpg?1781555135","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1782/collection_resources/173009/file/312101/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1782/collection_resources/173009/file/312101/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-ualberta.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/312/101/original/Paper_Ship_Act_1.mp4?1781555117","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":2319.46667,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1782/collection_resources/173009/file/312101","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[]},{"id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1782/collection_resources/173009/file/312100","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 2 of 2 - Paper_Ship_Act_2.mp4"]},"duration":2052.75667,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/312/100/small/PaperShipAct2.mp4_1781555071.jpg?1781555074","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1782/collection_resources/173009/file/312100/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1782/collection_resources/173009/file/312100/content/2/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-ualberta.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/312/100/original/Paper_Ship_Act_2.mp4?1781555065","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":2052.75667,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1782/collection_resources/173009/file/312100","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[]}]}