The Sacred Music and Dance of Haitian Vodou from Temple to Stage and the Ethics of Representation by: Lois Wilcken

This article talks about the development of dance and music in Vodou. Vodou is represented theatrically especially in Brooklyn. It also talks about how it should be represented and whether the form of vodou that is used now is ethical. The article says that vodou revolves around the dance which involves music and dance. The dance is considered the time for the community to “get down with the spirits.” Wilcken talks about the call and response structure of the dance. We are also able to understand the role of drums in the dance of vodou. The drumming provides the “fuel” for the participants of the dance to follow.

The author then talks about the depictions of vodou from different parts of the world. These depictions are represented in different ways through literature and often through theater. The earliest accounts of vodou come from the time of missionaries in the late 1700’s as they write about the slave dances. Because these accounts also shed a negative light on slaves, therefore vodou was dismissed as one of the effects of “black spirituality” and of the oppressed. During the early 1900’s during the United States occupation of Haiti, this reasoning was used to rationalize this occupation. Wilcken talks about how this led to vodou becoming “voodoo” and even led to the idea of a “Zombie.” The identity of vodou was limited later, says Wilcken, because of the disagreements among people about the representation of vodou.

This article was reading because I was not very familiar with the history of vodou and this articles allows me to understand the reason why vodou is as it is. It also makes me wonder that if vodou is represented by the dance would Rara be the dance?