Dance as decolonial and partnership praxis. José Limón's The Moor's Pavane, a ballet reworking of Shakespeare's Othello

Drawing from the decolonial perspective (Quijano 2007; Mignolo 2012; Mignolo, Walsh 2018) and the biocultural partnership-dominator model propounded by the anthropologist and social activist Riane Eisler (1987; Eisler, Fry 2019), this essay explores The Moor's Pavane (1949), one of the most successful dance adaptations of Shakespeare's Othello by the Mexican-American emigree, dancer and choreographer José Limón (1908-1972). In this paper I will draw a parallel between the Bard's text and Limón's dance composition to show how textual and embodied forms can merge and become a perfect medium for the displaying of all nuances in human 'nature', desires, and relations. In the world of ballet, the performance was revolutionary because it presented for the first time Limón's original technique, a complex re-working of Humphrey and Weidman's practices and a mixture of different dance-styles and tempos. The Pavane, a rigidly fixed court dance performed in Northern Italy around the Renaissance period, becomes the means through which Limón portrays the changing of order and stability of Shakespeare's plot, so as to debunk the hypocrisy of Elizabethan society and embody Othello's falling into Iago's trap. In my analysis, I will explore how Limón transposed and decolonised the Shakespearean tragedy through highly innovative fall-recovery movements, iconic gestures, and precise geometrical patterns. I will focus in particular on Limón's choice to reduce the intricate plot to a four-hand partnership dance between two different and yet parallel couples, Othello-Desdemona and Emilia-Iago. The aim of my analysis is to show how Limón slowly breaks up the Pavane's immutable tempo in order to provide a rhythmical crescendo of movements that express the tensions, disillusionment and final choices of the main protagonists.

从去殖民视角（decolonial perspective）（Quijano 2007；Mignolo 2012；Mignolo, Walsh 2018）以及人类学家兼社会活动家Riane Eisler（1987；Eisler, Fry 2019）提出的生物文化伙伴关系-支配者模型（biocultural partnership-dominator model）出发，本文探讨了墨西哥裔美国移民、舞者兼编舞家José Limón（1908-1972）对莎士比亚《奥赛罗》最成功的舞蹈改编作品之一——《摩尔人的帕凡舞》（The Moor's Pavane）（1949）。本文将在莎士比亚的文本与Limón的舞蹈作品之间进行类比，以揭示文本形式与具身形式如何融合，成为呈现人类“本性”、欲望及关系中所有细微差别的完美媒介。

在芭蕾领域，该演出具有革命性意义：它首次呈现了Limón的原创技法——这是对Humphrey和Weidman技法的复杂重新诠释，融合了不同舞蹈风格与节奏。帕凡舞是文艺复兴时期意大利北部流行的一种严格固定的宫廷舞蹈，Limón以其为载体，描绘莎士比亚剧情中秩序与稳定的变迁，从而揭露伊丽莎白时代社会的虚伪，体现奥赛罗落入伊阿古陷阱的过程。

在分析中，我将探讨Limón如何通过极具创新性的跌倒-恢复动作（fall-recovery movements）、标志性手势及精准几何图案，对这部莎士比亚悲剧进行转译与去殖民化处理。我将特别关注Limón的一个选择：将复杂剧情简化为两对不同却平行的伴侣组合（奥赛罗-苔丝狄蒙娜与埃米莉亚-伊阿古）之间的四人合作舞蹈（four-hand partnership dance）。本分析旨在揭示Limón如何逐步打破帕凡舞不变的节奏，以构建动作的节奏性渐强，从而表达主要主角（protagonists）的张力、幻灭与最终抉择。