Dancing with the Virgin

Deidre Sklar went to Tortugas, New Mexico, where an annual three-day fiesta honors the Virgin of Guadalupe, in order to seek answers to her questions about community, performance, and the embodiment of belief. How do we know what we know? Where do we belong, and how do we fit in? Sklar's own background and learned values form the conscious, constantly challenged raw material for the undertaking, and the intimate language of the body and sensation is her medium. Her ten-year study and movement analysis of the sacred dances and the "backstage" work involved in the festival take her deep into the life of the community, as dancer, participant-observer, and self-interrogating woman merge in a vividly narrated experience of "communal sacred time."

Deidre Sklar is Research Associate at Oberlin College.

Deidre Sklar went to Tortugas New Mexico where an annual three-day fiesta honors the Virgin of Guadalupe in order to seek answers to her questions about community performance and the embodiment of belief. How do we know what we know? Where do we belong and how do we fit in? Sklar's own background and learned values form the conscious constantly challenged raw material for the undertaking and the intimate language of the body and sensation is her medium. Her ten-year study and movement analysis of the sacred dances and the "backstage" work involved in the festival take her deep into the life of the community as dancer participant-observer and self-interrogating woman merge in a vividly narrated experience of "communal sacred time."