Alone, Asian and Female: The Unspoken Challenges of Conducting Fieldwork in Dance Settings

Abstract

This article explores the methodological and emotional challenges of conducting a multi-sited and multi-method ethnography in three diverse dance settings: sweaty dance clubs in the northwest of England, the muddy grounds of a festival site and the sands of Playa den Bossa, Ibiza. Despite overlapping academic and personal interests in these dance spaces, my connection to the field did not equip me for the fieldwork task. In plotting the transition from dance consumer to field researcher, I reflexively analyse how my personal anxieties about entering the field as a novice, lone female researcher have come to shape the research process. In addition to gender, the impact of less prominent facets of my identity, including my ethnicity and social class, are also considered. The article concludes by evaluating some of the retrospective advantages of entering the field as a lone researcher.

Taking pleasure seriously: the political significance of subcultural practice

“…The subcultural opportunities that exist arguably offer the space to form fleeting affective solidarities in moments of collective delight and intoxication (sometimes the night time leisure market might promise these things but fail to deliver them -see further Winlow and Hall, 2009). There are, however, multiple types of party people and party spaces (from the alcohol dominated night-time economies to highly diverse dance settings; from the bustle of the street to online communities) that produce different affective experiences for participants (see Measham, 2004;Bhardwa, 2013). Circumscribed by class, ethnicity, gender, age and sexuality (see Bhardwa, 2013) different types of affective solidarity are produced, from the ephemeral and weak to the more long-lasting and strong.…”

“…There are, however, multiple types of party people and party spaces (from the alcohol dominated night-time economies to highly diverse dance settings; from the bustle of the street to online communities) that produce different affective experiences for participants (see Measham, 2004;Bhardwa, 2013). Circumscribed by class, ethnicity, gender, age and sexuality (see Bhardwa, 2013) different types of affective solidarity are produced, from the ephemeral and weak to the more long-lasting and strong. All can be understood as proto-political, as the under-articulated desire for solidarity is arguably such.…”

‘Wearing down of the self’: Embodiment, writing and disruptions of identity in transformational festival fieldwork

“…Newmahr (2008) describes with some ambivalence how the voice in her fieldnotes changed as she became more immersed in the BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadism and Masochism) community she was studying. Bhardwa (2013) struggled to reconcile researcher and dance scene member identities in the field. Crises involving identity and self-doubt seem common in immersive fieldwork, stretching back to Malinowski’s (1922) infamous angst in the Western Pacific, which Young (2014) summarises as despair at having failed to reconcile his multiple identities into a coherent whole.…”

Introduction to Women and Electronic Dance Music Culture

“…While women in/and EDMC have been the theme of several articles of Dancecult in the past (Gregory 2009;Farrugia 2010;Madden 2011;Reitsamer 2011;Olszanowski 2012;Bhardwa 2013;Madden 2016) this is the first time a dedicated edition to the issue has emerged. Contemporary EDMC scholars are re-shifting the conversations and re-writing the limited histories to make room for more female role models, spaces and skill sharing practices to be established on a scale large enough to serve as inspiration for young girls to imagine being involved.…”