FINAL BOW FOR YELLOWFACE: DANCING BETWEEN INTENTION AND IMPACT by Phil Chan. 2020. With Michele Chase. New York: Yellow Peril Press. 238 pp., 12 photographs. $24.99 paper. ISBN: 9781734732481.

Abstract

to Christian religious practices. Notably, Mullis’s analysis of dance/theater works portraying Shaker culture forms the framework for a discussion of performative strategies that support his choreographic treatments of ecstatic Protestantism. Focusing on ethics and efficacy, Mullis argues for dialogic engagements with theology that avoid reducing religious embodiment to a set of aesthetic principles aligning with modernism. This examination of historical works concludes with an analysis of Mullis’s own The Land of Nod, which he uses to demonstrate (1) strategies for performatively engaging with theologies that allow for critical reflection and (2) ethical concerns arising from working with a living religion. Calling attention to how theatrical representations of the Shakers live at a historical distance from the sect, Mullis demonstrates how this leads to idealized representations and a focus on decontextualized material culture that “mythologizes” religion (112). Further positioning his examples, Mullis argues that his treatment of charismatic Pentecostalism in Later Rain faces different ethical concerns because it could offend existing practitioners, and focuses on theatrically presenting ecstatic movement, rather than a specific religion or religious community. Instead, Later Rain and The Land of Nod offer a model for how dance might critically and ethically engage with religious praxis. Overall, discussions of his performance works and choreographies either begin or end chapters, and are sometimes quite brief. This aspect of the text reflects the overall organization, which shifts between perspectives and methodologies. Eric Mullis’s Pragmatist Philosophy and Dance offers a rich treatment of pragmatism, theology, and somaesthetics, placing these bodies of thought in relationship to one another and dancerly embodiment in significant and fruitful ways.