BODY POLITICS

Kizomba music and dance being already popular in London and Portugal since 2006, the Dutch kizomba dance scene is developing rapidly from 2011.
This book tries to go beyond understanding the Dutch kizomba scene by and of itself.
Its broader i
ntent is to explore the more micro-performative aspects of the scene: the balancing act between freedoms and restrictions that shape, guide, and inform peoples behaviour, and in turn, produce difference. This is relevant in a time characterized by co
nfusion and heated debate concerning who is Dutch and who is not. Tying into existing literature regarding the paradoxical state of contemporary Dutch society regarding gender, race, nationality and ethnicity, the author attempt to uncover the perfor
mative mechanisms through which difference is reproduced within a part of Dutch society. The author argues that the schismatic and bipolarizing actions of Dutch institutions and the state actually create the opposite of what the Netherlands prides it
self to be: a non-egalitarian society that promotes and emphasizes difference.