Music, Dance and Ethnic Elasticity in a Kurdish Cultural Association: The Complexity of Intercultural Experience

Abstract

  The objective of this article is to examine how young people have engaged in a Kurdish cultural association in Stockholm, Sweden, making their ethnic heritage socially relevant through dance and music. It stresses the importance of taking people’s complex life-worlds into account, to avoid simplified connections between their performance of expressive cultural forms and their everyday lives. The fieldwork consisted of participant observations and semi-structured interviews. The first analysis concerns how the members relate dancing to Kurdish music to memories and life experiences. The second analysis focuses on the multi-modal qualities of music and dance as key-symbols, and the embodiment of ethnic belonging. The third concentrates on the shifting relevance of ethnicity, depending on current contexts and political changes. For the members, the relevance of developing a Kurdish identity had increased. They were (i) in a formative identity phase in their lower twenties. As ethnic minority members, (ii) it was important be recognized as equal Swedish citizens. They were (iii) affected by what happened in the diaspora and the ongoing war in Kurdistan. The multi-modal qualities of music and dance enabled the members to mold a unique and inclusive ethnicity.