舞向世界：國際舞蹈節中的台灣騷莎行旅

Dancing Me to the Cosmopolitan: Taiwanese Salsa Travel at International Salsa Congresses

跨文化的騷莎舞蹈在世界各地都很流行，每年都有許多國際騷莎舞蹈節在全球各大城市舉辦，吸引了包括台灣在內來自世界各地的騷莎舞者。許多學者研究了騷莎舞蹈的起源，並將騷莎舞與泛拉丁身份認同連結，相比之下，我調查了台灣新興國際騷莎社群之形成。儘管許多國家運用傳統文化遺產來建構自己的國族身份，但如同亞洲研究學者史書美所言，台灣人民透過擁抱外國文化來培養國族認同，而騷莎舞在台灣的盛行就是其中一個例子。

透過調查台灣騷莎舞者的世界行旅，以及分析他們在國際騷莎舞蹈節的表演，我認為這些舞者想像了一個以全球公民為身份特徵的未來，面對台灣不穩定的國家立場，舞者參與此具備國際大都會氛圍的世界舞蹈來作為柔性抵抗，透過舞動建立其國族的認同，並與中國人的身份區隔。本研究致力於分析非西方人跳騷莎舞的體現及其意義，這個題目在舞蹈學術研究中很少被仔細討論，此研究也考察了台灣非劇場演出的世界舞蹈形式，而這樣的討論在日益增多的台灣文化研究中也經常被忽視，最後，本研究也說明了，當來自世界各地的舞者，除了具有原本的國族身份之外，還能同時當世界公民，而台灣騷莎舞者，卻必須透過擁抱世界主義來完成其國族身份的認同。

 

The transcultural dance form of salsa is popular around the world. Every year, salsa festivals in the world’s major cities attract a significant number of international salsa practitioners, including a Taiwanese contingent. Scholars have attempted to locate an origin for salsa and to associate salsa with pan-Latin identity; in contrast, I examine the formation of the emerging cosmopolitan salsa scene centered on class-based affiliation in Taiwan. While many nations construct their identity through reference to an authentic heritage, Taiwan—as East Asian studies scholar Shu-Mei Shih argues—cultivates national identity by embracing foreign cultural products. The popularity of salsa is a particularly compelling example of this celebration of the foreign in Taiwanese society.

By investigating salsa travel by Taiwanese practitioners and performances in salsa congresses, I argue that these dancers imagine a future characterized by global citizenship. In the face of Taiwan’s precarious nation-state position, the practitioners welcome a form of cosmopolitan dance to construct their national identity as a soft resistance, and differentiate themselves from a Chinese identification. This study strives to clarify salsa practices by non-Westerners, which is rarely discussed in dance scholarship; it examines the non-theatrical foreign dance form in Taiwan, a subject neglected in the growing scholarship on Taiwanese cultural criticism. Last but not least, this study illustrates how Taiwanese salsa dancers embrace cosmopolitanism to complete their national identity, whereas people from the rest of the world embrace cosmopolitanism in addition to their national identity.